Operation: Provenance (Saria X Skadi slowburn)
by PUNKSPIKE
Summary: A mission to establish military control in a deserted coastal city slowly leads two confrontational colleagues to realize how much they need each other. This is a work in progress, and will be a long Saria/Skadi slow-burn. I hope you all enjoy! : ) Chinese translation here: /works/22797010/chapters/54479293
1. Chapter 1 (Complications)

"Is Skadi seriously doing it again?" asked Saria over her radio, already knowing the answer. She leaned forward in her chair, holding the transceiver near her face.

"Ye-yeah, she didn't want me going in with her," responded Jessica, with sounds of muffled combat annunciating in the background. "I mean, I think she's doing alright?"

"That's not the point." Begrudgingly stated Saria, tapping her fingers on the desk. When she was about to elaborate, she was rudely interrupted by Gavial.

"You just gotta jump in there, whether she wants you to or not! You need to prove yourself!"

"I uh… um." Jessica uncomfortably stumbled.

"You got this Jess! Just go!" Encouraged Gavial. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence from Jessica, Saria intervened by simply commanding:

"Everybody be back home for dinner before dusk hits. Over." She turned down the volume on her radio, knowing everybody heard her, although nobody audibly responded.

The team had been sent on a commission to a northwestern city in Federal Democratic Colombia to set up a base of operations, as Rhodes island was attempting to improve its global infrastructure. The city in question was not particularly interesting; it was just another city abandoned from an originum catastrophe. It was filled with abandoned buildings, some ancient and some contemporary, with the whole city being surrounded by ports on one side, and misty pine forests on the other.

Their current temporary base of operation used to be an art museum of some sort; as the inside was very colorful and decorated, even though the vibrancy faded over the years of abandonment. Their main meeting room was painted with angular modern art on the walls, filled with empty display cases and mirrors on the floor, all harshly illuminated by construction lighting and the dark blue screen of the command desktop.

Saria spent most of her time at the base, despite her combat experience. She didn't like the way other squad members ran things, although she didn't mind Grani filling in occasionally for some morale-boosting fun. Although Saria was a good leader, many saw her as being too tough and emotionless. Saria disliked this perception of her, but she accepted in for the sake of the team needing a strong commander in the face of hardship. Most of the squad understood as many of them aren't exactly sociable themselves; Scavenger likes to go quiet when her duty is done, Skadi seems to want to do everything by herself, Firewatch is too quiet and serious to talk regularly, and Jessica doubts her every action, in and out of combat.

Firewatch and Scavenger were the first two to show up at the base, having returned from a short reconnaissance mission in a mall nearby. Saria stood from her chair and addressed the two.

"What did you find?" inquired Saria.

"Almost nothing" responded Scavenger, gesturing to an almost empty duffel bag handing off the end of her sword. She flung her heavy gear near a display case and sat down leisurely in her chair. "We only found some small food packs and old magazines." Firewatch timidly held up a crumbled nature magazine she found while in the mall. Saria gave them a small nod and walked over to the next room, just as the rest of the team started to enter the room.

First Grani and Gavial stumbled in, laughing from some joke they probably told each other during the walk. They made some indistinguishable conversation as they placed their gear by the command desktop and sat down at the table, Gavial flipping her chair backward before sitting. They were finally followed by Jessica and Skadi. Jessica seemed embarrassed when Skadi was seen limping behind her, since Jessica was of shorter stature and could not support her. The 2 punctually placed their gear down and sat down at the tables, with Skadi obviously struggling to do so.

Saria returned to the table, neatly balancing a stack of MRE's in her forearms. She quickly distributed the small brown boxes to the squad; She gave some vegetarian noodles to Firewatch, a vegetable omelet (which nobody else seemed to like) to Scavenger, and generic chicken and rice to the rest of the members. As they all opened their packs and begun to heat their meals up, Grani tried sparking conversation.

"What did everybody find today?" she cheerfully asked. Everybody looked around the table at each other.

"Just some old books." Scavenger said, leaning back in her chair. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered something "Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" she exclaimed, as she scrambled out of her chair and over to her gear. She took out a dirty yellow bag and tossed it to the table.

"You found… potato chips?" questioned Firewatch.

"Gimmie that!" exclaimed Gavial, snatching the bag from the middle of the table. "Its been so long since I-"

"Don't eat those." sternly stated Skadi, breaking her silence. Gavial gave her a jokingly confused look, while Skadi remained stern. "Those aren't good for you."

"So? Were not at the base, we can have a little bit of junk food," said Gavial, about to open the bag.

"Put the bag down, Gavial." Stated Saria.

"Okay, okay! Damn people, it's not that serious!" Gavial shook her head and continued to eat her normal rations, as the conversation around the table died down. After a few minutes of eating in silence, Saria started debriefing.

"Did anybody find anything reunion-related on your patrol today?" inquired Saria.

"Nope" responded Grani.

"We found some reunion graffiti, if you want to count that," said Firewatch.

"Nothing in the mall, though." continued Scavenger. The eyes of the table then shifted to Jessica and Skadi. After a brisk silence and a quick glance between Jessica and Skadi, Skadi intervened by saying:

"Nothing to report, Saria." She wasn't very good at lying. Jessica looked down at the table, avoiding eye contact with everybody at the table.

"Oh, c'mon, we all heard you guys getting shot at over the radio! What was going on over there?" pressed Gavial.

"It was nothing important," stated Skadi, maintaining a serious look on her face.

"Yeah right, it was nothing! How are you expecting us to believe that you're limping around because of a hit from something unimportant?" Skadi's eyebrows furrowed as she angrily stared at Gavial. The tense quietness was interrupted by Saria.

"That's enough, Gavial," stated Saria. Gavial shook her head and begun finishing her food. Although Saria knew Skadi was lying, she simply finished her meal without further questioning (which is unlike her blunt nature), and neatly threw the box out afterward. She was contemplating how she could help regualte Skadi's ego.

"Well, I think that wraps it up," mentioned Grani, wiping a drop of juice off of her face. "Remember to do your chores tonight, if you got them. I'm looking at you two!" She jokingly pointed at Grani and Scavenger, who lightly laughed along. After the laughing died down, Saria reminded the team:

"Remember, Lights out at 10:00 everybody." The team nodded their heads as they rose from the table, all walking off in their different directions.

"I'll get your leg patched up, don't worry," said Gavial to Skadi, quieter than usual.

Saria was walking back to the command desktop when she felt a light tap on her elbow.

"H-Hey Saria?" timidly asked Jessica when Saria turned around.

"Yes?"

"Is there anything that I can help out with? I don't have anything to do tonight…" Saria thought about it for a second.

"We could use somebody taking provisions in the armory if you would like."

"Uh okay, Yeah! I'm on it," said Jessica, lightly smiling while turning around to leave the main meeting room. Saria made her way out of the room as well, and walked over to Grani's dorm room door. She knocked heavily on the door, which Grani responded:

"Come in!" Saria creaked open the door to see her overly decorated room, and Grani leisurely laying down in her cot.

"You're going to be commanding tomorrow, so be prepared," bluntly stated Saria.

"Oh, yeah, okay! You finally going out on the field?" inquired Grani. Saria quietly nodded her head. "Where's Gavial going to be then? We were supposed to be patrolling together tomorrow."

"You can decide," answered Saria.

"Alright, and who's going with you tomorrow?"

"I will be with Skadi and Jessica."

"Got it! Good luck out there tomorrow!" She nodded again as a response and closed the door.

Tomorrow was sure to be an interesting day for Saria.


	2. Chapter 2 (Divided)

Grani sat leisurely with her boots on the table, leaning far back in her chair and looking over at the open door of the meeting room. The room was dimly lit with the red sky of dawn from the atrium outside, and the dark blue login screen softly illuminating the left side of the table. A barely-empty cup of coffee was slowly letting off rising steam in the wake of the stagnant air. Grani was idly spinning her pike in the palm of her hand, pivoted off of the ground, waiting for the rest of the squad to wake up. Although she didn't need to be up this early, she didn't want to annoy Saria by messing up the new schedule for today. She already knew something was wrong considering Saria's colder-than-usual tone in her room last night.

Saria was the first person to enter the room, fully geared and holding her shield. She was up before the usual wake-up time for everybody as well.

"Good morning." Saria simply stated. Grani jokingly saluted and winked, continuing to fiddle with the spear. Saria set down her heavy shield in the chair across from Grani and walked over to the coffee pot nearby. Although Grani knew it was somewhat rude to ask, she inquired:

"What makes you want to go out on the field today, boss?" Saria slowly walked back to her chair, taking a long sip of coffee before answering.

"I will be honest, Grani. Skadi has a serious ego problem that needs to be fixed."

"Could you give me a recap on what happened yesterday? My pager was probably off."

"Keep your pager on then." Saria took another quiet sip of coffee. "Skadi keeps rushing in and clearing zones without any squadmates. I tried pairing her up with Jessica to try and make her realize that she had people to teach, and to rely on, but she just isn't changing."

"What's wrong with playing the hero?" interrupted Grani, picking up her own mug. "I mean, she's doing pretty well for basically being solo."

"She's not telling us about these 'engagements' she keeps getting herself into, and Jessica's too insecure to get answer those questions as well. None of us have seen any active reunion members except for them. We're a team," Saria implied. "We need to start acting like one."

"Yeah. It'll be hard to change. She's a lone wanderer at heart. An aggressive one, at that."

"I've heard," Saria said, neatly folding her hands on the table.

"She gets questionable whenever she's with anybody else on an important mission. I know that no R.I. operator would ever harm others recklessly for their own gain, but..."

"Go on."

"I mean- she gets aggressive when things don't go her way."

"I can handle her."

"I know you can," said Grani, pausing while she swirled the last of her coffee around in her mug. "But, eh, just please be a little careful around her. I've seen what she can do." Saria respectfully nodded as she got up to place her empty mug in the bucket they used for dish cleaning nearby.

"I needed to ask you as well; Did you hear of their plans for today? I figure you may know about her whereabouts more than I do." Saria inquired.

"I thought I heard her talking about going to some nice hotel out in district... uh," Grani paused, then quickly swiveled her chair to the command desktop, pulling up a map. "DE-12. Yeah, there." Saria thought about this information for a second, knowing the map of the area pretty well.

"She's planning a sweep of the Hilton?"

"Yeah, that's what it looks like."

"Hm. Interesting." Saria and Grani spent a second observing the map before they heard the door creak farther open.

"Good morning, everybody." Firewatch timidly said, walking in the room and sitting down at the table. Grani gave her a small wave. She was soon followed by the rest of the squad, who all calmy filed in and found their seats around the meeting table, everyone a little groggy from the morning routine. Grani stood up on top of her chair to offset her short stature, and held her pike like a walking stick, mimicking a pose of a propaganda poster.

"Alright ladies, listen up!" Grani commanded with a great deal of energy. "We're doing what we normally do, but with some new teams!" After getting mixed reactions from the team, she continued. "Well, not really new teams. Firewatch, you're free to go solo today, Scavenger and Gavial will be exploring the overpass to the north, and the rest of you will be on a team together!" Firewatch gave Grani a small nod of respect, while Scavenger and Gavial got up to get the last of their gear together.

"I... you're going with us today?" asked Jessica to Saria, suppressing her excitedness. Saria looked towards her, catching a glimpse of Skadi giving her a dirty look from over her shoulder.

"Yes, I will be with you two today." Saria defined, making sure her presence was heard by Skadi. Saria lifted up her shield and gestured to the door, looking at Skadi. "Lead the way," Saria said, maintaining her composure while simultaneously sounding sinisterly equivocal. Skadi and Jessica grabbed their weapons and walked out of the door, into the naturally lit hallway. As Jessica lagged behind the two walking, out of hearing's reach, Skadi asked:

"What do you think you're doing, Saria?"

"I'm helping you out on your mission," Saria stated. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"I'm not in the mood to play around here. Tell me why you're doing this." sharply demanded Skadi, turning towards Saria, and staring at her intimidatingly. There was a brief moment of silence.

"You know exactly why I'm going," She responded, tilting her head sideways towards Jessica, who didn't notice. Skadi's expression faded from angry back to serious.

"Listen, I-"

"Radio check!" Grani rudely interrupted by mistake.

"Loud and clear, shorty!" Gavial quipped.

"Shut up!" she responded, joking around but also sounding a little annoyed. Jessica giggled a little with this remark, while Saria and Skadi retained their stone-cold composure. The three made it to the elevator and pressed the ground floor button. The doors slowly closed, and the trio stayed silent.

Although there was no speaking, there was a definitive tension in the small elevator. Skadi glanced at their reflection off of the scratched stainless steel door in front of them. Jessica looked pretty worried, which made sense, as the two faces behind her looked like they were going to a funeral. The soft hum of the elevator motor stopped, as the doors slid open on the ground level. The trio walked through the lobby, exiting through a broken translucent door, and into the dark sunrise.

"This way" Skadi simply said, pointing west. The little team nodded, and began their journey, with Skadi leading the way. Everybody seemed weary to say another word, as Skadi and Saria have already proven their distaste in the presence of each other. They instead glanced around the barren cityscape, filled with broken skyscrapers, overgrown planters, and deteriorated litter almost everywhere. They persevered, walking on overgrown sidewalks covered in grime and broken glass, their boots crunching the shards with every step. After they walked down a couple of blocks, Saria knew something was wrong with the way they were going; she remembered the city layout from her time spent commanding pretty well.

"I know this isn't the way to the Hilton," Saria alluded. Skadi looked back over her shoulder, seeming annoyed. After a few moments of this glare, Skadi calmly stated:

"And why is that a problem?"

"I know you were going to the Hilton today," Said Saria. Skadi stiffened her shoulders while contemplating, taking a deep breath and responding with:

"We can't do that, not today at least."

"So why were you planning on going there?"

"I don't want you two there," responded Skadi, seemingly avoiding the question.

"S-So we can't help you?" asked Jessica, sounding upset.

"Tsk. Why must I waste my time on you two?" Skadi declaimed, sounding uninterested. "We aren't going there, whether you want to or not. You two find something else to do today." Skadi grimaced, fully turned towards the other two. Skadi then tried walking past Saria, purposely bumping into her, only to be completely stopped by her sturdy stance. Face to face, they both shared a look of boiling animosity, both of them thinking of a cold final line before the argument reached its end.

"Fine," Saria stated, surprising everybody, maintaining her angry glare into Skadi's sanguine eyes. "Go ahead."

While sighing, Skadi continued to walk past the group, not looking back at them. Saria and Jessica both looked back over their shoulders. After watching her take a turn out of sight, Jessica looked up at Saria.

"Wh-Where are we going to go now?" she asked.

"The plans haven't changed much; We're just taking a different route to the Hilton," firmly stated Saria. "She needs to know that she has reliable teammates on her side."

"Oh, okay!" Jessica said. "I'll definitely prove myself this time!" Jessica's upbeat attitude did not match Saria's cold expression as she simply nodded as her answer. Jessica noticed, and turned her face back down towards the ground, even though Saria was not intentionally being mean. Suddenly, the little radio on Jessica's belt sounded:

"How's everything going out there?" It was Grani from home base. Jessica reached for the radio, but was deterred by Saria signaling her not to do so.

"We're all good out here, nothing interesting… yet." Gavial jokingly responded, her voice slightly distorted over the pager.

"Nothing to report." Firewatch quietly stated, the sounds of a forest wind in the background. "Over."

"Hey, last squad... Does anybody hear me? I know somebody does!" said Grani, followed by an awkward extended silence. "Well, I can't hear any of you, but I wish you the best of luck out there! Over."

"Should we have let them know?" Jessica timidly asked Saria.

"We'll be fine; don't doubt yourself now." Saria asserted. Jessica blushed and looked down again, silently appreciating the indirect compliment.

"O-Okay. Yeah." Said Jessica, lightly nodding her head. Saria turned around to lead them down a different path, looking down a bleak downtown street littered with rubble and debris.

"We will be there for her, whether she wants us to be or not"


	3. Chapter 3 (Vacancy)

"S-so this is the place she was going without us?"

"Yes." replied Saria, neatly pushing a small pile of litter out of the way. They stood in the back alley of the magnificent hotel; it was covered in beautiful art-deco stonework and masonry, now deteriorated well past its glory days. The building itself was also pretty giant, almost acting as a small reunion beacon in the immediate area. The place they were standing, however, was not so nice. The back alleyways were piled high with trash bags and building scrap, along with some small chunks of originum, which worried Jessica. Saria and Jessica walked past quickly, and swung open a heavy metal door.

"Wait!" Jessica warned. Saria looked down to see a small laser pointing across the doorway near her knees, linked to a crude explosive device on a hinge.

"Good call." she said, ignoring the fact that she didn't notice it. She methodically kneeled down, and used her syringe to slowly push the lazer away from the doorframe, eventually disarming it completely. "All clear."

The two entered the room to reveal a diminished kitchen, dimly lit and filled with echoed sounds.

"Do y-you hear that, too?" worriedly asked Jessica, who heard the sounds of combat echo through somewhere nearby. Saria nodded and readied her shield, beginning to walk faster than she normally would. There was an unusual lack of people near them, considering that it was a reunion stronghold; everybody was either fighting or fleeing. The duo continued to sweep the kitchen, eventually disarming another explosive to lead into the connected restaurant. The sounds of combat got louder and louder.

"We're getting close, be prepared." stated Saria. Jessica did a last minute check-up on her pistol ammo. They rushed past the restaurant and ended up in the beautiful lobby, once again decorated in old-world masonry and beautiful soft lighting.

"Wow, this place looks really nice! I haven't seen anything like this…" mentioned Jessica, as their footsteps echoed off of the marble floors. Saria was about to respond, before she was loudly interrupted by one of the walls shattering, sending a reunion member flying with the rubble. The member attempted to stand and regain his balance, but was shot by Jesssica.

"Clear." said Jessica, confidently. They both sprinted up to the new hole in the wall to reveal a large presentation room diagonally below the lobby; it shared much of the same style as the rest of the hotel, but the focus of interest was Skadi circling in the middle of the floor, making indistinguishable conversation. Saria signalled for Jessica to drop down through the gap, which they both did. They finally got a good look at the situation: There were many defeated reunion members littering the floor around Skadi, who was speaking to a reunion juggernaut.

"If we have to resort to violence, you know you are no match for me." Skadi stated, simultaneously sounding competitive yet uninterested. The two were slowly striding in a circle across the room, sizing each other up and getting prepared for a fight. She was so focused that she didn't realize that the other two were standing in the blasthole.

"How do you know what your match is?" asked the juggernaut, sounding confident enough to keep going.

"It's a little gift of mine, some might say." said Saria in a condescending tone. Suddenly, a loud burst of sound fled through the air, and the juggernaut shifted forward; Jessica had just taken a shot at the back of his head. Although it didn't really do damage to the armor, the juggernaut turned around to have a look at the two other squadmates. Seeing the opportunity, Skadi quickly dashed at the armored man, making a big gouge on his side. She then sprinted to the team as the juggernaut got up to recover.

"H-Hi Skadi!" Jessica said, excitedly, pointing her pistol down to the ground.

"Leave. Now." said Skadi, seemingly irritated. Skadi looked back over her shoulder at the juggernaut, who was now back on his feet, and looked back to her team. After realizing that they weren't budging, she begrudgingly said "Tch. Let's just get this over with. I want to get back to base."

Jessica smiled and nodded, finally getting some trust from Skadi. The three ran back to the juggernaut, Skadi leading the way. Jessica took running shots with her pistol over Saria's shoulder. Skadi dashed again at the juggernaut, now swinging upwards and knocking off a heavy plate of armor. As she ran around to prepare for another swing, Saria got into a shield bashing battle. They were deadlocked in a strength battle, before Jessica took more shots at the juggernaut's arm, allowing Saria to stab his hand with the needle gun in her hands. Saria attempted to kick the juggernaut's knees, but was offset by his huge stature. Skadi rushed back in, attempting to stab his back plate, only for the sword to knock off to the side.

This skirmish continued for awhile, as the three moved along in a circle of unison. Saria kept him occupied with his melee weapons, leaving an opening for Skadi and Jessica to deal damage. The juggernaut had swung his club many times at her shield, and the reinforced glass was finally starting to give in. The armor on the juggernaut also seemed to be failing, as more and more of Skadi's swings broke skin and started bleeding. It was only a matter of time between who could win first. Skadi slashed by again, nearly knocking off the faceplate of the juggernaut this time. Saria was confident in her survival, but was surprised when the enemy turned away from her.

The juggernaut swung his club in a different direction, this time hitting Jessica in the midsection. The impact made a very unnatural cracking noise, and Jessica accidentally dropped her pistol to the ground as she flinched from the heavy impact. The juggernaut held up his shield over his head in anticipation to swing, while Saria and Skadi both dashed to stop him. They were both too late.

He swung the shield swung down diagonally, slamming Jessica in the face, once again making an unnatural crack. There was no scream of pain, only a presence of unusual silence from Jessica, who instantly collapsed onto her back. Skadi continued her charge, this time smacking the helmet off of the juggernaut. She continued attacking him instead of running around, jumping onto his shoulder plate and slashing the top of his head. Saria charged for one last bash, knocking the enemy onto his back. Saria quickly finished him off, killing him in an unceremonious way. Saria and Skadi then sheepishly looked at eachother, both knowing what they had to look at next. They both turned to their right to see Jessica's body sprawled across the ground nearby, lying in a pool of blood.

They quickly rushed over to her, only to see a horrific sight. Jessica's face had been distorted and covered in blood, her one pupil noticeably larger than the other, and a large gouge in the top of her forehead. She was staring into the ceiling and convulsing on the ground. The other two quickly kneeled down on both sides of her, Saria checking the pulse on her arm. She was still alive, but it didn't seem like she had much time. Saria was the first to speak.

"Jessica? Can you hear us?" Jessica gave no response, not even looking at them. A deep sense of dread set into Saria, as she fully realized what was happening. After a silence that felt a little too long, Jessica responded:

"Who? I-I…" Her voice sounded slurred and muffled, almost as if she was talking through water. She convulsed again, but was held down this time by Skadi. She threw up some blood making the other two turn her on her side, which revealed an excessive amount of bleeding from the mouth and abdomen. After the convulsing calmed down, her shallow breaths started to sound like bubbling liquid, almost like she was gargling. Her face looked like it was in pain, although she wasn't frantic or worried; just weirdly silent. As the gurgling noise grew more and more prominent, Skadi finally spoke her mind to Saria.

"We can't keep her suffering like this." Saria contemplated for a second, then started nodding. She squeezed Jessica's hand before slowly rising from kneeling. Skadi picked up Jessica's discarded pistol, looking at Saria for some kind of reassurance. She solemnly nodded, and Skadi kneeled down again, softly pushing the barrel of the beretta to Jessica's left ear. Her hand lightly shook as she readied her trigger finger.

It's not that she didn't want her suffering to end; She just couldn't believe that this was happening again. She'd watched many suffer and die, most of them from her own hands. She'd seen close friends get blasted away like they were nothing over her years of mercenary work. She had seen death more than anybody should; but it was different this time. She had spent so long isolating herself to avoid this very situation, only for it to happen again after a short while. It was way too soon for her. That's the only reason why she tried to flee group work, so she wouldn't have anybody she cared about to suffer on her account. Skadi knew she could end the suffering for Jessica, though. She thought it through over and over in her head; You can do this, you can do this, but her pistol still quivered at the anticipation. She wanted to cry, but it was like she didn't know how anymore, only being substituted by a pressing pain in the back of her head and a quivering chin. Skadi was suddenly brought back out of her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll do it." Said Saria.

She felt a great sense of relief, but also a great sense of guilt from the offer. She still nodded, and slowly pulled the barrel away from Jessica's head. The two slowly switched spots, now having Saria kneel down by her limp body. Skadi sheepishly tried passing her the pistol, but she denied it in favor of something less destructive. She pulled out her empty needle, and gently prepared it at the side of Jessica's head. She wanted to break her stone faced demeanor at that very moment, but she knew she couldn't. She knew that people needed strong-willed people in times like this, even though she wasn't very strong-willed herself. She just simply suppressed her tears as she prepared to drive in the needle. Saria looked back at Skadi, looking for some kind of final rites or last words from her.

"I… I'm sorry, Jessica." she struggled to say. Saria looked forward and quickly shoved the needle through the side of Jessica's head, ending her suffering. Her face and eyes didn't show any type of additional pain. Saria gently slid Jessica's eyes closed and took the name badge off of her jacket, before standing up and looking at Skadi. They both had the same stone-cold expression, although both of them weren't feeling that way at all. Saria, trying to continue her commanding, said:

"We should leave here, before things get any worse." She was trying to keep focusing on the objective, attempting to distract themselves from the obious. Skadi looked around for an exit, only seeing the blast hole that was too far up to leave from. The two both spread out, looking around for an exit.

Skadi continued to contemplate the situation that just happened as she climbed onto the presentation stage. Again, she thought it was so weird how the same situation found a way to make her suffer again, and how difficult it was even though she isolated herself from the team as much as she could. As she marched around the stage, she felt something change beneath her feet. Looking down, she found a heavy iron trapdoor.

"Found an exit." she called out to Saria. Saria walked up to the stage, still seemingly dazed from the situation, and stood across from her over the trapdoor. Skadi squatted down to open the heavy rusted hatch. As she slowly pulled it open, a small distinguishable cling noise alerted her.

"It's rigged!" Skadi sternly shouted as a grenade tumbled to the bottom of the hatch. She quickly slammed the door back down, accidentally pinning the end of her tailcoat in the hinge. She quickly struggled to free herself from the pinned jacket.

"SHIT!" screamed Saria, instantly breaking her hard composure. She threw her syringe and shield to the ground and sprinted towards the hatch. She dove at Skadi, tackling her down to the ground just as the grenade went off, shaking the stage and sending a flurry of shrapnel and dust from underneath the wooden floorboards. Their ears rang loudly as they struggled to get their bearings. Skadi opened her eyes to see Saria in her face, looking like she was in immense pain. Saria unwrapped her arms from underneath Skadi, and pushed herself off the top of her, throwing herself onto her back.

They both breathed heavily on their backs, side by side, as their adrenaline rush calmed down. Eventually, Skadi shuffled up and had a look at the damage. The hatch was bursted open, and the wood around it was scorched and virtually gone. Skadi took a deep breath of realization, as she would have probably died without Saria. She looked over at her, who was still struggling to recover. Her left leg was bleeding profusely, filled with shrapnel, and mangled from the blast. Her heel was especially damaged, since it was without form and barely covered by the equally mutilated boot. She was looking at the ceiling, trying not to focus on the immediate pain.

Skadi quickly walked back to her, lending a hand to help pull her up. She took it, leading to a struggle to get her back onto her feet. She eventually awkwardly stood, balancing on her good foot.

"Do you think you can still walk?" Skadi sincerely asked. Saria tried shifting the weight onto her other leg. She whimpered as she slowly pressed down, squishing the mutilated limb in an unnatural way. She suddenly leaned forward a bit, losing her balance ever so slightly. Skadi quickly walked up to support her.

"No, no. Don't." Saria commanded, holding up her hand to tell Skadi to stop. "I can… I can just- HAAAAAH!" Saria grimaced loudly, through clenched teeth. She had just slipped on the blood pouring from her mangled leg while attempting to walk. While she fell, she tried to hold onto a speaker cart for balance, which quickly rolled away, leaving Saria face down on the debris-scattered floor.

"Saria?" worriedly asked Skadi. Saria blindly crawled to the cart, using it as leverage to help herself kneel. Breathing heavily through her gritted teeth, she got prepared to fully stand, only to fail and stumble back onto the ground. Saria pushed herself back onto her good knee, continuing to persevere.

"Stop." Skadi pleaded, watching her struggle. Saria looked up at her with pain-filled eyes. "Just... stop."

Saria kept her eye contact as her quick, shallow breathing gradually turned slow. Saria's eyes dipped down as her breaths got even slower, and she found it harder to focus. She swayed left to right slowly, before finally collapsing onto the floor. Skadi grabbed her shoulders before she hit the ground, saving her face from hitting the floor again. Scared, Skadi gently placed her down and ran over to Jessica's body. Using her sword, she ripped off a sleeve from her hoodie, and ran back to Saria, using it as a bandage for her leg. After patching her up, Skadi had to take a deep breath. She has just lost Jessica, and she knew she couldn't handle losing another person. Even though those two got themselves into the situation, Skadi couldn't help but feel as if the injuries were her fault, and she knew she was going to lose Saria if she didn't help her somehow. She contemplated to no avail, and she had no idea what to do; she was so used to mercenary work, and never having to look after people.

She was once again surrounded in the conversation-less silence of solo work; but it felt so uncomfortable this time. Something was familiar, but so far off simultaneously, like when she visited her old childhood house, or read her old mission reports from her mercenary years. Something was just… wrong, but she knew that there was no use in wasting any more time thinking about it. She kneeled down to pick up Saria, shifting her weight so she could sit up,, and then picked her up into a fireman's carry. Her knees shook as she raised Saia completely up, as she was of a heavier build compared to Skadi. Nevertheless, Skadi shambled her across the presentation theatre, preparing to break open the wall with her sword instead of attempting to go through another deathtrap.

"Don't worry." Said Skadi, even though she knew she couldn't hear her. She thought about what to say next, and decided on something that she hadn't said in ages:

"We'll be alright. We just need to get home..." It felt so unfamiliar when she continued. "Just hold on."


	4. Chapter 4 (Extirpation)

"No… No. We keep moving" Saria demanded, using Skadi as a human crutch. She could tell that Saria needed to stop, as her grip over her shoulder had loosened, and her steps became more lethargic over time. Skadi had been originally carrying her in a fireman's carry, which Saria was simultaneously embarassed and impressed by, considering her stature. They had kept this carrying cycle going for awhile, as the sunset turned to deep night. They were going nowhere fast, and they weren't even halfway back to the base, trudging through the overgrown roads of dust and soot.

"We're stopping." she commanded. Saria wanted to continue moving, but couldn't argue against the quickly impending pitch-black night. Skadi led the two of them to a large complex, the glass entrance now smashed apart. They stumbled in and opened a door to their right, revealing an abandoned apartment, barely illuminated by the falling moonlight through the broken blinds. Skadi slowly let Saria down onto the dingy couch in the direct light of the window, then standing to lock up the door. Saria was more quiet than she usually was, only making noise through her stuttered nose breathing. After the room was locked down, Skadi scavenged around the apartment, looking for any type of supplies that could help them through the night. She searched the kitchen, only finding a small paring knife, a rag, and an old can of chicken soup. She went back to the entrance room to place the things down, only to find Saria crawling on the ground in the bathroom. A crude trail of blood dragged across the floor from the couch to where she was laying down, Forehead against the sink cabinet, breathing heavily again. In her hands held a small roll of bandages. Hearing the footsteps to the side of her, she turned around and pushed her tail to the side to see Skadi. After a few seconds of locked glare, Skadi intervened:

"Be careful." she simply stated, turning around to continue searching elsewhere. Skadi knew that she needed help, but didn't know what to do with Saria's perseverance to help herself. Knowing the same ideals, she left Saria alone for a bit as she continued to search.

Saria knew she shouldn't be doing this, but asking for help just felt weak to her. Through the pain, she lifted herself up and back into the living room. She attempted to slowly lower herself down onto the couch before she lost her footing and fell into place instead. Skadi walked up to the coffee table between them, and Saria looked down at her wound. She attempted to peel off the impromptu bandage that was hastily made from a hoodie sleeve, only to be met with intense pain. She tried her best not to show it, continuing to breathe in and out quickly. As she calmed herself down, she quickly drifted off into a faint state, slouching on the couch. Skadi shambled back into the room, this time holding an unopened water bottle.

"Saria?" she asked, walking over to her on the couch. She continued to stay drowsy and lethargic. Worried, Skadi went over to her and checked out her wound. The new bandage hadn't been put on yet, as it was simply lying on the table as the ripped hoodie continued to hold the bleeding in place. Skadi slowly grabbed the edge of the crude bandage, checking to see if Saria would contest; she didn't say anything. She slowly peeled away the wrapped layers of caked cloth, revealing a discolored leg still filled with shrapnel pieces. She re-wrapped the leg, and then felt Saria's forehead to check for infection, revealing a high fever. She knew something had to be done, and soon. She picked Saria in a pietà style , and through squinted eyes, Saria asked:

"What are you doing?" Skadi struggled to find a response that didn't reveal her deep rooted worries.

"I am going to fix your leg." After a few moments of no response from the other, Skadi continued. "I wouldn't want you to suffer on my account."

She slowly carried her into the bedroom, and gently laid her down onto the mattress.

"My leg is fine." she resisted, sitting up as Skadi let her grip lose. Skadi ignored her and walked out to gather the supplies from the living room. The injured commander attempted to sit on the side of the bed, struggling due to her sore muscles. She felt drowsy again and had trouble remaining upright. Skadi entered the room once more, balancing the household supplies on top of her crossed arms. Saria was too enveloped in pain to resist further while she was being prepared for the impromptu surgery. She was laid on her back when she saw Skadi looking at her, hands on the bandage, waiting for some type of go-ahead. Even though she didn't want the help, she felt as if she couldn't oblige. She gave her a small nod and laid her head back down, staring at the ceiling in preparation.

Skadi began to lift the crusted hoodie sleeve off of her leg, leading to an extremely sharp and violent pain as the stiff cloth peeled off of the shrapnel wounds. Saria refrained from yelling the best she could, resorting to gritting her teeth and sharply breathing through her nose. Skadi continued by unclipping the mangled ankle holster on her leg, snagged to her leg by the dried blood. Skadi painfully finished the removal and tossed the bandages and holster onto the other side of the bed, examining the wound with better clarity.

Skadi was way more nervous than she showed, since it had been at least a year since her last impromptu surgery; She also knew that she had to do something for Saria, because she could not let another person die or be left behind on this mission. She wished that Saria was conscious enough to give her medical advice, but she was ill to give any.

After a few moments of examination, Skadi picked her up again and carried her over to the bathroom, gently placing her back down in the clean bathtub, pushing her tail to the side beforehand. Saria didn't contest due to her focus on her fever and immense pain. Skadi, kneeling over the end of the bathtub, punctured the cap of the water bottle with the paring knife she found earlier and sprinkled the water over the wound, cleaning some of the matted blood. The wounds weren't as bad as she thought, with only a few punctures scattered throughout the skin, but it was still bad nonetheless. She used the rag to pat away the water, and held up the knife in preparation for removal.

"Wait." Said Saria, looking at the tool. Struggling to speak, she continued. "Clean it first." Skadi nodded and stood up from her kneel. She said:

"Be careful, I'll return in a second." Saria continued to look at the ceiling, attempting to ignore the pain, while Skadi scavenged the kitchen. She came back with a battery-powered mug boiler, gently placing it down on the outside rim of the sink. She poured some of the water into it and dropped the small knife inside. The mug slowly heated up, while Skadi and Saria stared at it in near silence, only hearing the buzzing of the heater and the continued breathing of them both.

As the water finally reached its boiling point, Saria got prepared again, this time tightly gripping the tainted rag in her hands. Skadi lifted the steaming blade out of the cup and methodically lowered it towards her leg. Saria tried her hardest not to move as she felt the heat of the blade get closer to her skin. She felt a sudden sharp pain as Skadi lightly inserted the knife, and then used her leg as leverage to dislodge the metal scrap. Saria struggled to not make noise and maintain some of her a few moments of burning pain, the piece popped out, and Skadi tossed the shard into the sink. She got prepared to remove another piece, and caught Saria staring at the newly bleeding wound.

"Are you ready to continue?" asked Skadi. Saria let her view fall back towards the ceiling again, attempting to hide her pained expression behind a serious persona.

"Get it over with."

"By your command" She lowered the knife again, this time aiming for a deeper piece. Sarai audibly whimpered as she dug out the shrapnel, making her tail quiver the slightest bit. The pain stayed level as piece after piece got removed, tossing each bloody splinter into the sink above until there was only one shard left. It was significantly larger than the rest, made of curved heavy metal, and dug deep into her heel. Skadi had been avoiding it the whole surgery. She quickly checked the leg again to confirm that it was the final piece, and decided to warn Saria:

"We have one peice left. Be prepared." She calmly said. Saria tilted her head back up and stared at the wound, letting a very slight expression of worry skip through the serious facade. Noticing this expression, Skadi suddenly felt unnerved again, knowing that she knew about medical practice more than she did.

"Is it safe to do this now?" she asked, reflecting the slight look of anxiety. Saria's face turned into a deadpan look once again.

"Get it out." said Saria, serious and slow. She leaned forward, gently examining the final blood-caked piece with her right hand. She looked back at Skadi, continuing with utmost professionalism, despite the dripping blood falling off of her calf and into the tub. "Take a side, and pull on it. Hard."

They both placed their hands on opposite sides of the wound.

"The cut will start to pull apart, grab the shrapnel with your other hand and pull it out. Don't use the knife, and don't let go, no matter what." Skadi nodded and carefully placed the knife in the sink, preparing the hand near the shrapnel once more. They looked at each other for confirmation, to which Saria nodded.

They both pulled hard, making Saria's tail twitch more as she tried her hardest not to wince. Skadi gripped the metal and began pulling up, only for the metal to barely move; Fresh blood started dripping down again, but the scrap didn't dislodge. Saria continued to breathe heavily through her gritted teeth, before fading into a pained scream as Skadi pulled harder on the metal. She let up for a second, but then moved her leg to pull with leveredge. Saria's tail flail around, making a loud noise slamming against the wall and shifting her body around. Skadi made a full pull, suddenly disconnecting the metal, flinging a line of blood on the wall and ceiling, and calming down Saria's screaming. She started breathing heavily through her open mouth as Skadi dropped the piece into the sink, dropping fast and making a loud clanging noise.

Skadi quickly picked up the punctured bottle and cleaned the leg once more, sending the leftover pool of blood swirling down the drain. Saria's breathing slowed down as she passed out from pain, no words omitted. Skadi finished cleaning and bandaging the wound and took a deep breath, thinking about the stressful surgery. Realizing that Saria was in an uncomfortable position in the bathtub, she slowly lifted her up and carried her out of the room.

She carried her back to the moonlit bedroom and gently placed her on her back on the mattress. She backed away for a second, paying close attention to the soft sounds of the night and Saria's slow breathing. A slight residue of diluted blood-water stained an outline around her leg on the white sheets.

"Have yourself a pleasant, dry dream." said Skadi, walking out of the doorway, somewhat satisfied with her work. She walked back to the cramped living room, making sure that everything was closed up for the night. She checked the door, the broken blinds, and the windows, which one was partially open. Skadi strided up to close the window, but heard muffled talking as she got closer.

She slowly leaned forward, pushing the shabby blinds out of the way. There were 2 reunion members walking on the street outside, carrying a box each, and making unintelligible conversation while searching around the surrounding buildings. Skadi quietly ducked below the window as their gaze wandered near the apartment. She quietly sealed the window, closed the blinds, and made sure that the front door was locked. She quickly grabbed a shabby wooden chair from the kitchen and placed it down in the middle of the living room. She sat in the chair, gripping her sword rested vertically into the ground, staring at the front door intently. She sat there for what felt like a small eternity, waiting for some reunion member to stumble on in.

Bzzzz

" Yo Jessica, Saria, Skadi? Where are you guys at? You already missed dinner, I need to know where y'all are before bedtime! " sounded the radio on Skadi's belt.

The first words hit a lot harder than Skadi could imagine. She felt a heavy guilt in her stomach as she exhaled and loosened the grip on her sword, remembering Jessica..

" Helloooooo? Well, listen. We'll send out a search team tomorrow to check on you all, so if- " Grani continued.

"Don't send anybody," sternly said Skadi, interrupting Grani, holding her radio close to her face. "And keep Gavial at base, we'll be back by tomorrow."

" O-okay, uh… What happened? " she cautiously asked. Skadi gave no response. She knew that there was no way she could let even more people get hurt on her mission. She casually leaned back into her chair (although she was very worried), and continued to stare at the door, with no intent to fall asleep that night.


	5. Chapter 5 (Reparation)

"We'll be inside soon" Skadi muttered as she carried Saria, who was barely conscious enough to hear. It was now dawn, with a cool breeze gently blowing Skadi's broken coat around loosely. She knew the way back to base, and she knew she wasn't far, even though the light morning fog blocked any far vision. She struggled to walk, each fatigued step happening with stiff legs and labored breathing. Skadi couldn't take the pressure of the reunion swarm back at the apartment, so she carried Saria late at night without proper rest for herself. It seemed to be the right call, considering that Saria was still able to rest.

They came upon the street at which their museum base stood, Skadi feeling a small surge of satisfaction, which distracted her from her labored steps. She approached the glass door slowly, and they saw Grani looking out of the lobby windows.

After noticing them, Grani moved closer and stared at them through the cracked door, barely seeing through the translucent red decals clinging onto the broken shards. She swung the door open for them, a big goofy grin across her face. Suddenly, Skadi lost her footing and collapsed onto her knees. Grani quickly dropped the expression and shoved the door open, running out to them. When she reached them, Skadi was slouched over and breathing heavily. Grani kneeled down across from her.

"Oh shit! Is she...uh." Grani paused, unable to find the right words.

"She's alive, It's her leg..." responded Skadi, gesturing to the blood-stained bandages on Saria.

"O-okay! c'mon, let's get her inside."

Skadi looked up at her with tired eyes, arms still wrapped around underneath Saria. Grani took the clue, wrapping her arms around her and taking a deep breath before deadlifting Saria out of Skadi's hands. She quickly turned around and began walking back to the door, while Skadi slowly struggled to stand up. By the time Grani was at the door, she'd managed to stumble onto her feet again, walking with stiff exhausting steps, barely keeping up. They went up through the elevator and continued onwards to the meeting hall.

Skadi continued to walk with stiff legs, exhausted from the lack of rest over the last two days. Grani shoved open the meeting room door with her shoulder, finding the rest of the team standing around the planning table. They all looked at the injured group in surprise, none of them saying a word.

"Hey, Gavial," said Grani, out of breath. "I need you here." Gavial nodded and ran over to the doorway.

"I got a little infirmary down the hall," she said, signaling in that direction and taking the lead. She casually patted Skadi on the shoulder, pushing her more than she anticipated. "You're coming too, C'mon."

Skadi reluctantly walked back out of the room and followed them down the hallway.

"Damn, whatever got you guys must have got you good!" lightheartedly joked Gavial, looking at the bandages on Saria. "What happened to her?"

"Shrapnel." quietly said Skadi, running out of energy.

"And what happened to you?" asked Gavial. Skadi took a moment to respond.

"W-what?"

"You got blood all over you and you're stumbling around like you're hammered. Are you hurting at all?" she said, pointing at Skadi's blood-splattered shirt.

"...Not mine."

"Did you find any reunion walking around?" curiously cut in Grani. "We found some wandering around our base last night, and-"

"Not the time," said Gavial, oddly serious for once. She stopped walking and shoved open the door to her left, revealing the impromptu infirmary.

"Yeah... we found some," said Skadi, struggling to talk. Grani looked forward again, a slight expression of worry growing across her face.

"Alright, well, we can talk about this when-" Grani was interrupted by Gavial.

"Calm down, everybody. How much damage could a couple of reunion guys do, anyway?" They walked into a contemporary little cafe with messy modifications to make it medical to some extent. Grani slowly laid Saria down onto a couch, while Skadi slumped down in another adjacent to her.

"Wait…" said Grani.

"What?" responded Gavial, sounding irritated, searching through a small box for supplies.

"Where's Jessica?" worriedly asked Grani, looking at Skadi. She was too tired to respond fast enough, watching Grani's face shift from curiosity to worry. She rushed out of the door and back into the hallway, disappearing from the infirmary.

"Grani! Hey!" Gavial called to no avail. She shook her head and walked back onto Saria, halfheartedly looking in the doorway for any sign of Grani. The medic kneeled down next to Saria, preparing to unwrap the bandage. Gavial looked back at Skadi once more, asking:

"What did happen to Jess? Is she good?"

Skadi sheepishly pointed at the extra ID badge on Saria's uniform. It took Gavial a second to turn around and see her hand. She turned back around and snatched up Jessica's old ID. It had a large drop of dried blood partially covering her picture, painting a type of morbid image. Gavial asked:

"So... does this mean that-"

"She's dead." coldly mumbled Skadi, leaning back down in her bed. Gavial respectfully nodded and focused on Saria's injuries for a moment before asking:

"What… what happened to her?"

Silence pursued before Gavial turned around to see Skadi passed out on the couch, completely exhausted. She shook her head once more and gently placed down Jessica's ID on the side of the couch, focusing again on examining the injury.

LATER

Skadi slowly drifted out of her rest, awakened by the creaking of the infirmary door.

"Hey, Saria. The gathering is still going on if you'd like to join us." Gavial said, a somber undertone in her voice.

"In a while," responded Saria. Skadi fully sat up as Gavial walked out of sight. She felt fully rested and without much pain.

"Hello, Skadi."

"Hello." She responded, stretching ever so slightly. She glanced at the open door to see the night sky through the windows. "Was I resting for the entire day?"

"Yes, and so have I. The team is having a debrief in the meeting room, you may want to go."

"You aren't going?"

"No." coldly stated Saria. Although Skadi thought this was a weird response, she stood up to go to the meeting anyway. She noticed that she had been cleaned of blood and that the ripped coat laid on a nearby counter. Noticing Gavial's work, Skadi asked without much thought:

"How is your foot?"

"It's fine, it's better than before" she said, seemingly irritated at the question. Skadi wanted to make sure she was okay, but she had been away from her team for so long. She needed to give some type of closure. She walked down the moonlit hall, hearing the soft sounds of conversation through the walls. She opened the door to the meeting hall to find the rest of the team sitting on the floor, circling around a lighted gas lantern. Scavenger held a square glass bottle in her hand, and they all had a blank look on their faces. Gavial was the first to notice Skadi in the doorway, and quietly waved her over to the gathering. She reluctantly walked over to them, not sitting down when she arrived.

"What is going on?" Skadi asked, confused about the odd setup. The rest of the group looked at each other for a second.

"We're just talking," responded Scavenger, shrugging her shoulders slightly, and adjusting the way she sat. Skadi suddenly felt very uneasy, almost as if she was intruding on this moment of intimacy, feeling like she shouldn't be there. She nodded and turned back around towards the door, preparing to leave.

"Hey, uh, Skadi…" timidly asked Firewatch, looking up to her. Skadi tensed up a little before turning to look at her.

"Yes?"

"Could you stick around for a bit?" politely intervened Grani, and possibly interrupting Firewatch. This felt weird to Skadi, as the team had almost been completely distant to her before now, even though they were just reciprocating her actions. She really didn't want this emotional conversation, but she felt too obligated to do it. She sat down on her knees, and Scavenger passed her the unmarked brown bottle.

"What is this?" asked Skadi, attempting to smell the scent of the liquid.

"We don't know, it's some type of liquor. I found it on my patrol duty yesterday without the label on it." responded Scavenger. "Figured now would be a good time to use it." Skadi nodded and took a decently sized swig, and the heavy taste burned her nostrils.

Everybody blankly sat around in silence as Skadi passed the bottle around, everybody staring into the soft light of the lantern. Scavenger broke up the by silence saying:

"We were just talking of old stories and paying our respects… to Jessica. We drove her back to base and Firewatch buried her just a few hours ago."

The group intently listened but continued to not look at each other, staring off into the everlasting lantern fire instead in a calming silence.

"Got anything that you would like to say?" asked Gavial in a caring tone. Skadi slowly rose from her kneel.

"It's not really my place," she said, looking around at the team. They all nodded in a contemplative way, but Skadi still felt way out of place in the situation. Again, it had been so long since she'd been in anything like this. Skadi had a million thoughts racing through her head that she could say, but she wanted to keep them to herself. Scavenger gave one last remark before she left.

"The grave is out near the front side of the building, if you wanted to visit."

"Oh, and wait," said Gavial, snatching the bottle out of Grani's hand and standing up. "See if you can get Saria to come over here, she may want to go if you ask her. Even if it's a no, offer her a drink. She could use one, more than any of us right now." She said, passing the bottle into Skadi's hands. Skadi nodded and walked out of the door.

She trudged through the hallway towards the elevator but heard quick footsteps behind her. She turned around to see Gavial again, hustling to catch up to her.

"Wait, Skadi!"

"Yes?" she asked, after a short pause.

"You don't really talk to Grani much, right?" she asked. Confused, Saria slowly nodded her head. She thought to herself how she doesn't talk to anybody that much. Gavial looked behind her and continued in a hushed tone: "You can't tell her that I told you this."

"What is it?"

"She called The Doctor and Kal'tsit earlier, and she was worried about you finding out."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Skadi, confused about Gavial's overall message.

"She knew you disliked extra people in our work."

"What are you trying to say?"

"We got more operators coming to our base, and she was worried about you snapping on her about it." Skadi did feel extremely frustrated but managed to hide it well beneath her calm demeanor. Grani, of all people, knew how Skadi liked to work. She felt somewhat betrayed and thought that Grani was just being paranoid, but she still wanted more information:

"How many people are expected to arrive?"

"No idea. My guess would be another full squad since I heard Kal'tsit talking about needing another medic," said Gavial, sounding almost offended about the remark.

"What else did you hear?"

"Not much, mostly just jumbled words because I was trying to listen through the doorway. I know she said something about a bunch of guards and rangers, but nothing specific." Skadi nodded, still holding back her annoyance. Gavial continued:

"But, yeah, now that we finally got a lead on the reunion here, it's not a bad idea," she mentioned, looking around the hall. "I know that you don't like people showing up, though. I just wanted to let you know what's up."

Gavial looked at her for a second with no response. She turned around and walked back into the meeting room as Skadi stood there in contemplation, the bottle still in hand. She walked the opposite direction of the elevator and went back to the infirmary, opening the door to see Saria sitting upright on the couch.

Skadi made her way across the room and sat down on the couch across from Saria.

"What did they talk about?" asked Saria. Skadi exhaled through her nose and leaned forward in her chair before answering.

"They were telling me about Jessica, and how they buried her already," she said. Saria nodded in contemplation and noticed the liquor bottle.

"What is that for?" She asked, looking at the bottle. Skadi gently placed it down on the table.

"The team wanted you to have a word with them, they tried to give this as an incentive." Saria picked up the bottle with an unapproving glare.

"They should know that I do not drink," she said, placing the bottle back down on the table. "And besides, they don't look to me for this kind of support anyways. I know Grani has everybody feeling alright out there." Skadi knew exactly what she was talking about, having the same feelings about the meeting. More thoughts raced through her head as she was thinking about what to say.

"Do you still want to talk about it?" she asked, wanting to contemplate a little bit herself. Saria looked a little shocked but managed to maintain composure. She couldn't keep it up for long, since her eyebrows got slightly closer together and her flat mouth turned into a barely noticeable frown. Skadi abstained from speaking as Saria got her thoughts together. Saria looked down at the table as she started speaking.

"I'm sorry."

"Hm?"

"You were right about wanting to go alone. I should not have tried to intervene." Skadi looked up at her, and they made eye contact. Saria's hands were folded in her lap. "All of this could have been avoided if I wasn't being such a hardass on everybody." Skadi was sort of surprised, seeing as Saria has almost never sworn. She knew something was wrong, and she couldn't have her feel like it was her fault.

"I did the same," Skadi said, breaking eye contact herself this time. "I could have been telling you about the reunion meetups and everything earlier on, but I was too worried about the others, and was too worried about being tough. Now Grani's calling in new people and I don't know how to feel about her anymore."

"It still wouldn't have happened if I stayed commanding instead."

"No, I th-"

"I am in the wrong here. I should take the blame."

"No, stop. It's both of us here, and you were doing what you're supposed to be doing. I'm used to fighting alone, but look, you saved my life!" She said, losing some of her calm expression, gesturing at Saria's leg. There was a long pause after she said that. They made eye contact again before Skadi leaned back a little in her chair. "I'm sorry about Jessica."

They both looked at each other for another extended period of time, with Saria seeming to be out of words. Skadi glanced over the side of her shoulder at a clock hanging above the entry door; it was getting late at night. Skadi looked back to Saria and slowly rose. She got ready to leave, before turning around to ask: "Would you like to pay respects with me?"

Saria broke eye contact once more and thought for a moment.

"Yes." She said, being especially careful standing herself up, putting most of her balance on her good leg. She managed to stand surprisingly well, considering her injury. "Let's go."

* * *

Thank you for reading this far, and thank you to everybody who got me to 750+ views! Please feel free to tell me anything you may think about the story, I take criticism well : )


	6. Chapter 6 (Excursion)

"You look better." blankly stated Scavenger, pushing open the door and letting the morning sun illuminate the meeting room. "But aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Yes," Saria responded. "But I can still command from a chair. I'm fine."

"Alright. Where's everybody else?" asked Scavenger, looking around the room. Suddenly, Gavial's voice chimed in from outside of the hallway, muffled by the distance.

"You doubting my skills, Scav?" she called out jokingly. Scavenger shook her head as Gavial pushed open the door farther. "Arts abilities can do a lot, you know!" Scavenger gave a little smile, and the two began to check their gear at the table as the rest of the team filed in and sat down. Grani had a small look of shock on her face as she entered to see Saria in the commander's chair.

"Hey Saria, are you sure you're up for this?" asked Grani, putting her hand over the back of her own chair.

"Please sit down." coldly commanded Saria, to which Grani obliged. Checking to see if everybody was there, Saria continued. "I am sure we have all heard about the new reunion threats in the area. We will handle those, but we need to get more intelligence first. We know about the presence in area DE-12, so we will all be around there today." She paused once more, looking at the table for a second. "Scavenger, you mentioned something about driving back to the base last night?"

"Yeah, we found an old car out on the overpass the day you were out. It's an old Volvo four-door."

"Is that good or bad?" asked Firewatch, looking around the table.

"Hey, it's a car at least. You know it's hard to find those laying around!" Grani cheerfully intervened.

"Pssssh. You're acting like we hit a goldmine, the car is beaten up to hell!" responded Grani, swiping the air jokingly.

"That's beside the point," cut in Saria, folding her hands on the table and silencing the conversation. "We can use that to transport everybody back and forth, for however long it lasts."

"I know how to do some repairs, so it'll last a while," stated Scavenger, confidently.

"Are we splitting up on the way there?" asked Firewatch, looking at Saria.

"You can go alone, I recommend some recon on some rooftops. I want Gavial and Grani to stick together elsewhere, and I want Scavenger to stay ready with the car for everybody. Skadi, are you rested enough for a mission today?" asked Saria. Skadi quickly snapped out of her own silent thoughts.

"What would you like me to do?" she asked.

"I lost my shield and syringe back at the Hilton when I was injured. I trust that you can retrieve it on your own." confidently stated Saria. Skadi nodded in affirmation and respect before Saria continued. "It's all ready then. Get your things and return to base before dusk."

The team grabbed their things and promptly went down to the main floor. They all filed out of the main entrance to find the old, white, boxy car in its mediocreness.

"Ta-da!" joked Gavial, gesturing to all of the rust and dents scattered across the car.

"Will we all fit?" Asked Firewatch, noticing the small size of the car.

"We're gonna have to," said Scavenger, unlocking the driver side door, being weary of the cracked window held together with yellow tape. "Let's get going."

Skadi and Scavenger both placed their oversized swords across the dashboard, and they sat in the front seats. Scavenger noticed Firewatch and Gavial idly standing on her side of the car, Gavial's hand on the door handle. Scavenger realized the rest of the car was locked, and she pressed the unlock button on her door. On the other side, Grani easily got in, and she slid across the backseat to try to help the other two open the door; it appeared to be stuck. After a few moments of tugging, Skadi seemed irritated at the noise, but calmly suggested:

"Just get in through the other side." They looped around, with Firewatch entering the car first. She was squished in between them when Gavial entered and took up a little too much personal space. They awkwardly struggled to get Gavial's staff and Grani's pike to fit across the seats. Once they were all settled, they began the drive east down the cluttered streets. The car wasn't as good of a transport option than they had thought, since the catastrophe-stricken city was riddled with grime-covered debris and broken down cars, making it difficult to navigate. After a minute or two of driving, Skadi checked to see if there was anything interesting in the glovebox. Noticing her hand going to open the door, Scavenger said:

"There's just a bunch of license papers and an emergency flare in there, it's probably best to keep it here." Skadi nodded and placed it back. The car then began to pass an overgrown-looking park

"Could I get out here?" Firewatch asked, awkwardly trying to get Scavenger's attention, but was drowned out by the engine noises. "Scavenger?" Scavenger still didn't seem to really notice.

"Yo, Scav, stop the car!" yelled Gavial.

"Huh?" she asked, hitting the brakes and looking at the backseat through the smudged rearview window "What's going on?"

"Firewatch wants to get out here."

"Oh, my bad, I didn't hear her." Scavenger backed the car up back to the intersection they had just passed and unlocked the doors. "Remember to conceal yourself, Firewatch."

"Roger that," she said, trying to yell over the loud engine. Gavial got out of the car first, so Firewatch didn't have to climb over her to get out. When the two were standing next to each other, Gavial nudged her on the shoulder.

"Have fun out there!" Gavial jokingly said. Firewatch gave a small smile and walked off, and Gavial entered the car again. Scavenger continued driving down the road. They eventually reached the apartment building where Sara had the impromptu surgery, and that's where Grani and Gavial got off. The last two continued Eastward for a few more minutes.

"The hotel is getting close, right?" Asked Scavenger, turning slightly to see Skadi.

"Yes, it is only a few minutes ahead." Scavenger nodded and looked back towards the road. After a few moments of silence, she curiously asked:

"Did you really carry Saria this far?"

"Yes. I did what had to be done" said Skadi. Scavenger was focused on driving for a moment before continuing.

"Gavial didn't get a chance to ask you yesterday, was it you that took the shrapnel out of Saria before you brought her back?" Skadi looked at her confusedly.

"Yes… is that important?"

"We just wanted to know why you knew what to do." Asked Scavenger, a slight undertone of seriousness in her voice. Skadi, not wanting to talk about her past, thought about her answer for a moment.

"I have experience."

"Hmph, That's not enough of a story."

"Tsk. Just don't do anything stupid by putting your life in my hands, I'm used to fighting, not saving lives." Skadi said in a condescending way, side-eying scavenger through the mirror.

"Hey, stop getting angry with me, I was just mentioning it. I know what to do." Scavenger snapped. The two stayed in silence as they eventually arrived at the hotel. Skadi picked up her sword and began walking out of the car.

"I'll be around here, I'll pick you up when I see you," said Scavenger, leaning out of the side to keep eye contact.

"I won't be long." responded Skadi, who turned around and walked into the entrance. She walked back into the beautiful lobby, noticing the hole near the ground that she had made last time she was there. She squatted down and looked through the chasm of the presentation room. It was still littered with defeated reunion soldiers, and the big juggernaut still laid dead on the ground. There was a small pool of blood and Saria's syringe where Jessica died, but the body was taken back yesterday. Skadi took a moment of contemplation before dropping into the room.

She made her way over to the Syringe and picked it up from the top. She couldn't find the shield, so she began to wander around, eventually finding it on the stage. She climbed and picked up the now partially broken shield, cracks lining down from the top, telling the story of the juggernaut fight. She was about to walk off of the stage before she noticed the blown-apart hatch again. The door had been blasted open in the explosion, but it now appeared to be closed. She attempted to lift it with her arm, attempting to carry the weapons as well. With no avail, she placed everything back down on the stage and lifted it with better leverage, making sure that her tailcoat wasn't in the way. Although there wasn't much light, she could see a large amount of Blacksteel and Penguin logistics boxes, most of them undamaged. There were small ammunition boxes, and many more melee weapon cases laying around. The understage part was much more expensive than she realized.

"Stand. Slowly." commanded a voice behind her. Skadi slowly stood up and turned around to see a man holding a crossbow, aimed directly at her. "Don't move, and I won't hurt you"

"Faust," said Skadi, remembering the small stories and records about him that she heard from her fellow operators. Their eyes locked, both of them subconsciously worried about what either of them could do. Suddenly, both of them heard somebody drop down from across the room.

"Skadi, Firewatch said she needs us, we should- uh..." Scavenger stopped talking when she noticed Faust.

"Stand still," he said, crossbow now aimed at her. "Drop the sword." Scavenger looked over at Skadi, looking for some type of direction. Skadi gave a small head nod, and Scavenger reluctantly tossed her sword to the side. While this happened, Skadi took a glance to check where her sword was.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, continuing to be intimidating despite his stature. Scavenger wondered why Skadi didn't want to attack him, but she knew that Skadi had way more experience than she did. Faust read the situation, noticing that everybody was looking at him in a confused way. Although he wasn't really one to talk, he said: "I heard you two enter with that car out there, if that's what you are wondering." There was no response from the other two, so he continued. "We need you to leave the boxes alone and leave this city immediately. You can take your friends' belongings. We won't hurt you, only if you leave now."

Scavenger wanted to blurt something out about Jessica's death, and the hypocrisy of reunion not hurting them, but refrained from doing so. The two stood still, hands raised to their shoulders, waiting for something to happen. Faust noticed that he had successfully controlled them, and asked:

"Do you have a new base near here? Any other people we should know about?" Scavenger and Skadi looked at each other but said nothing. "Hm, silence can speak louder than words," he said, double-checking to see if his arrow was ready. "Get out of here, now."

Skadi and Scavenger both slowly dropped their arms, being cautious of Faust. He was now standing in the back of the stage, with easy sight to both of them. Skadi slowly picked up her sword, along with Saria's gear, while maintaining eye contact with Faust. The two slowly walked backwards to the hole in the side of the wall, making sure to not break attention to Faust. When they were out of eyes range and in the laundry room Skadi originally escaped from, Scavenger broke the tense silence.

"Who the fuck was that?"

"We need to leave, now. Ask questions later." Skadi said, quickly walking to the exit door. Scavenger obliged, however, she was still confused. They sprinted out to the car and Scavenger started it up, the engine taking a little while to roar to life. She popped open the trunk, where Skadi was standing. She pushed it farther open and threw in the shield, syringe, and sword that she was carrying. She slammed the trunk closed, and noticed something odd by the back wheel. She walked up to it and kneeled down; It was a small magnetic device placed in the part of the fender right above the wheel. She pulled it off of the car and held it up, attempting to figure out what it was.

Skadi walked back into the car and sat down in the passenger seat, holding up the device for Scavenger to see. She snatched it out of her hand.

"Where did you find this?" asked Scavenger.

"It was stuck in the curved part of the car, by the wheel. Do you know what it is?"

"It's a tracker." she sighed, putting the car into park. She opened up her door and tossed the tracker across the street, by the front of the hotel. She then heard an almost inaudible snickering from somewhere else on the street.

"Let's just leave. We aren't safe here" said Skadi, who must have heard it as well. Scavenger jumped back into the car and put it into drive. They sped away, unsure if they were being watched.


	7. Chapter 7 (Tabula Rasa)

The sun had just fallen below the horizon, and the last signs of dusk trickled into the sky as the old Volvo sped down the road, sending tiny rocks and paper scraps flying in its wake. The five squad members had all just regrouped after a long day of scouting, with Scavenger and Skadi watching different areas after the hotel situation. They had all found some traces of reunion, but nothing as solid as Faust, whom Skadi didn't tell the group about. The group nearly arrived at the base as Scavenger screeched to a stop a few blocks away.

"What's wrong?" asked Firewatch, attempting to see through the dirty windshield.

"I'm wondering what Saria is doing outside," said Scavenger, squinting to see the entrance to the museum. "I'm gonna get closer." She moved the car forward, revealing a large shipping truck painted a dark shade of grey. They were a little suspicious as they slowly passed it, but they ended up seeing a small group of Rhodes island members conversing with each other outside of the open backdoor of the truck. Scavenger stopped the car in front of the sidewalk.

"Get out here, I'll find a place to hide the car for a while."

"Got it!" said Grani, attempting to offset some of the negative feelings towards her about the doctor call a day or two ago. They all got out of the car, scavenger popped open the trunk, and everybody grabbed their gear. Skadi got a better look at Saria now that they were outside, and saw that she was using an old crutch to help herself stand. Skadi grabbed Saria's weaponry out of the trunk and walked towards her. She was greeted by the new group, along with the three others, but she walked right past them instead of responding. She walked straight up to Saria, who was standing on a small set of stairs in front of the main entrance. Saria noticed Skadi walking up to her with the recovered gear.

"Oh, thank you, Skadi." She said, shifting some of her weight off of the crutch to hold the shield. Skadi didn't give her the gear.

"We need to talk, now," Skadi demanded, giving a small gesture with her head to the front door. Saria looked a little confused, but obliged and turned around. The two were able to sneak off through the commotion and went upstairs into the now-empty meeting room. Skadi slowly closed the door and leaned over to the blind-covered windows, attempting to peek through at the small crowd below.

"Go ahead," Saria started, leaning forward on her chair for support. "What is it?"

"I found Faust, back at the hotel," said Skadi, pulling out the closest chair and sitting down.

"Are you certain it was Faust?"

"Yes."

"What did he do?" asked Saria. Skadi gave a small shrug.

"Almost nothing; he intimidated Scavenger and me, so we walked off with our own gear. It looked like they had a weapons stockpile in the stage pit that he was defending. He just wanted us to leave."

"It was smart not to attack him," said Saria, rotating her chair slightly. "So I'm obliged to thank you for being careful; With this information, Defense is our best option going forward."

"Did anybody else report reunion members on their missions?"

"Yes, but nothing as important as Faust," said Saria, sounding a little worried. Suddenly, the door to the room swung open.

"Hey guys, we were looking for you!" exclaimed Grani, upbeat as ever.

"What do you need me for?" intently asked Saria.

"We're trying to introduce everybody, c'mon downstairs!" energetically said Grani to both of them. Skadi and Saria glanced at each other.

"Give us a moment," Saria stated. Grani nodded her head and lazily closed the door as she walked away.

"Saria?"

"Yes?" she responded. Skadi took a second to think about what she was about to ask.

"Could you keep the Faust situation classified to the others?

"Wasn't Scavenger there with you as well?"

"I already talked to her about it," explained Skadi. Saria leaned back a little in her chair. "I feel like everybody will overreact if we tell them exactly who's out there."

"Fine. I won't mention it. Is that all you needed to talk about?"

"Yes," said Skadi. She finally placed Saria's gear down on the table and started walking to the door. Saria tried standing, but the rolling desk chair slid away from the table. She awkwardly tried pushing herself back forward with her good foot to get a reach of the desk, to which she struggled quietly. It was quiet enough to not immediately catch Skadi's attention, but the moving chair was enough to be incredibly frustrating for Saria. Skadi turned back to see this happening.

"Do you need help?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine," Saria responded, staring at the table instead of making eye contact. She attempted again, but the chair kept rolling away. Skadi shook her head and walked up to her, quietly holding out her hand to grab. Saria looked up at her hand, back down to the table, and then reluctantly grabbed her forearm. Skadi hoisted her up and held on long enough for Saria to get her crutch corrected. Without a word, they walked out of the conference room and made their way downstairs. Kal'tsit was standing near the elevator, scribbling something down on her clipboard.

"Greetings, Doctor Kal'tsit," said Saria, somewhat surprised that she was there. "Are you part of the team now?"

"Hello Skadi and Saria, and yes I am, to an extent."

"To an extent?" asked Skadi, tilting her head slightly.

"Yes, I won't be on base as much as your other colleagues here, but I will still be nearby."

"The Doctor didn't tell anybody about it?" Asked Saria.

"He should have… Apologies on his behalf." Kal'tsit said, looking somewhat annoyed. "I am on a tight schedule so I will have to let myself out, sorry for the short introduction. The rest of the team is out in the courtyard." Kal'tsit coldly stated, turning around towards the front door. Saria nodded and went the opposite direction, to the courtyard doors. Skadi lagged behind for a second, suspicious of her actions; something seemed off about Kal'tsit's actions to Skadi. The doctor continued to write on her notepad, but Skadi saw that she was growing nervous with her presence.

"Is something wrong, Kal'tsit?" asked Skadi, barely empathetic. Kal'tsit looked up from her clipboard and looked at her for a second without an immediate answer.

"Oh, no. I was just thinking about warfarin, how annoying she would have been for you if I hadn't taken her slot. I… didn't know you were a part of this operation."

"Mhmm," mumbled Skadi. That didn't seem like the real answer, but she didn't want to push for info too early on. Besides, she could just be wanting to avoid the get-together, seeing as she knows most people here. Skadi turned back and quickly speed-walked to catch up with Saria, right before she went to open the door. Skadi opened it for her and they walked out into the cool night, the sky above the courtyard filled with pretty stars and soft clouds reflecting the last of the sunset's amber light. A plume of smoke rose throughout the sky as the two saw the new people huddled around a small campfire. They walked up to greet the big group, and were quickly introduced.

"Okay, everybody! Here she is, this is Saria, our leader," began Gavial.

"I'm not the only leader." interrupted Saria.

"Our leader, Saria, and our heavy hitter, Skadi!" Gavial turned to face the two. "I want you two to meet Exusiai, Indra, Siege, Hoshiguma, uh..." The medic stopped pointing at each person, forgetting the grey-haired ranger's name. After a second or two she politely intervened.

"It's Sch-"

"Schwarz! I'm so sorry, how could I forget?" boisterously interrupted Gavial, dramatically putting her hand to her own chest. "...And finally, we got Angelina and Broker!"

"Broca." he angrily said, staring upwards at her.

"Broca! Yeah, sorry," said Gavial, sounding a little embarrassed at this point. They all sort of knew each other to some extent, but everybody was more like distant co-workers than friends, At least so far. She found a place to sit between Grani and Scavenger.

"Hey, now that they're finally here, we can start now!" loudly called out Grani. Skadi and Saria found some room to sit, between Firewatch and Exusiai.

"What are we starting?" asked Skadi.

"A game," said Gavial, mischievously, while pulling out a deck of cards and idly shuffling it. "War. The highest card gets to ask the group a question, the rest of the group answers. If you get a Joker you can ask a specific person a direct question. Easy enough?" The team nodded their heads. Gavial passed the stack around, everybody taking a card before passing it along.

"Alright, Who's got the high card?" asked Indra, jokingly holding up a 3 of hearts. They all looked around to see that Firewatch was quietly holding up a Queen.

"What's the question?" impatiently asked Broca.

"Uhh…" Firewatch seemed to be uncomfortable in the spotlight. She seemed to search for the first question to pop in her head, no matter how bad. "Does anybody here... play any sports?" The group was silent for a second, knowing that they were all too busy with military work to have much leisure time. Nevertheless, Exusiai cheerfully split the silence by saying:

"I used to play baseball a lot as a kid!"

"Were you any good?" asked Hoshiguma.

"Not really, no. I had fun playing, though!" she laughed.

"I used to do professional fights, if you would count that as a sport," Broca mentioned.

"Hey, if we count that, then Siege and I are players as well!" Indra said, jokingly punching Siege's arm, almost making her drop the lollipop in her mouth. Siege simply gave a small laugh and shook her head in response.

"Alright, time for round two everybody!" Gavial said again, passing the card stack around.

"Joker means you ask one person, right?" asked Siege, holding up a joker card.

"Yep!" Said Grani, prodding the fire to keep it going. "Ask away!" Siege looked around the circle for somebody to ask.

"Skadi?"

"Hm?"

"Anything interesting to say about your sword? I think it's cool," asked Siege. Skadi thought about it for a second.

"No, nothing to really say."

"Aw, c'mon, I know they were testing the hell outta that thing a while ago back at Rhodes Island! What's the story?" rudely asked Indra. Siege jokingly punched her back in the arm, but said:

"Drop it, Indra." Skadi remained silent and watched the two interact.

"Oh, we are just getting to know her!" she snapped back.

"We all have our rights to privacy here." interrupted Saria. "Let's just move on."

"A-alright everybody, round three!" Gavial said awkwardly. They did the same card-passing routine.

"I think I got it." Said Scavenger, holding up a jack.

"I have it." Said Schwarz, holding up a king. Scavenger's arm dropped back to her lap. Schwarz thought in silence for a few seconds. "Is anybody here an ex-mercenary or bounty hunter?" Skadi raised her hand low, even though everybody knew about her ridiculous amount of experience. Firewatch gave the slightest nod when Schwarz was looking at her.

"Yep!" said Gavial, with a little laugh. "I was a little too good at healing to stay one, though."

"Used to be, Long time ago," said Hoshiguma. "Long time."

"Yeah, and for most of my life," said Scavenger in a melancholic tone.

"I was, sort of," Said Broca. " I did whatever was paying well, but I wouldn't say I'm really a mercenary."

"Same situation for Indra and I." Said Siege, gesturing at both of them.

"Eh, I don't know if you would count logistics operations mercenary work," said Exusiai, almost disappointed to say it.

"I feel so out of place now!" joked Angelina, looking around at all of the people who said yes. "I'm just, like, a mailman!" Grani gave a little chuckle in unity.

"Alright, well, that's something we can talk about tomorrow, let's do some more rounds before it gets late!" Said Gavial. They passed the cards around yet again.

"I got the high card, I think!" Angelina said, looking around at the other cards being held up. "Okay, uh, Scavenger! You haven't really said much yet, I think I'll ask you something."

"Ask the question." impatiently stated Scavenger.

"Okay, uh… Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend?" Angelina asked. Scavenger kind of winced a little and looked subtly shocked.

"Seriously? Don't put me on the spot." Scavenger said in an odd tone that they hadn't heard her use much before. It's like her voice barely cracked as she said it.

"It's okay, Scavenger, you don't have to answer." empathetically said Gavial, reading the situation well. An extended silence pursued the group.

"...And that is how a game dies, everybody," Indra joked with a tinge of frustration in her voice. She stood up and began to walk to the museum doors. "Goodnight everybody." The whole group started to stand up before Grani yelled out:

"The room chart from earlier should be on the elevator, everybody! Don't unpack in the wrong room!" They all stood up and seemed to know what was going on. They all filled through the doors and into the lobby, but Skadi and Saria lagged behind a little while they went through the lobby. Scavenger seemed to linger by the campfire alone as it died down.

"Do you know what Grani was talking about?" asked Skadi, turning her head to see Saria.

"No, I do not," responded Saria. "Let's see what the chart says."

"Weren't you guys outside on the front sidewalk earlier?" asked Exusiai, turning around to speak to them. "Sorry for listening in, I was just curious."

"We weren't, not for the whole time at least." Said Saria.

"Oh, right, Grani said something about you two! She was having people choose their new dorms earlier, I think she just filled you two in wherever there was space. C'mon, we can check!" exclaimed Exusiai, leading them to the piece of paper, showing which rooms everybody would be in.

"New dorms?" asked Saria, surprised at the number of rooms taken.

"Let's see… Indra and Siege... Grani and Angelina… Ah! Here we go, you two are in this room!" She exclaimed, pointing at a small square on the floor plans.

"Us two?" asked Skadi. "We don't have singular rooms anymore?"

"Seems that way. Also, I still don't know this building very well, but I think it should be right off the elevator exit!" She tore the paper off of the wall, since everybody else was already upstairs, and handed the paper to Saria. The elevator opened, and the three of them got on. Skadi and Saria both confusedly looked at the map, not really knowing what room they were going to be in. The elevator door opened, and the three started walking out.

"Good luck finding your room, and it was nice meeting you two!" said Exusiai.

"Likewise," Saria stated, still looking at the map.

"Have a nice night," Skadi told Exusiai as she walked away to her room. The two looked down at the map and took a left, ending up at a slightly dented door, painted in Carolina blue, with a rectangular outline of tarnish where a sign must have been.

"Is this our room?"

"I believe so," said Saria, neatly folding the map and placing it in her pocket. "Open it." Skadi gently opened the door to see a room of little magnificence. To start, it was small. Extremely small. The white ceiling panels were all gone, leaving an aluminum grid frame with conduit and insulation exposed, a lone fluorescent light buzzing overhead. The room barely held its contents, which was basically a small desk and a sofa, along with a filing cabinet and random office junk scattered on top of everything but the hardwood floor. The back wall was made of ugly wood paneling, and those weird wave-patterned glass blocks, so they could see the moonlight but not the moon itself. Skadi tried to fully push open the door, but it only opened on an acute angle after it was blocked by a badly placed chair. The two shuffled into the cramped room and took a look around, closing the door behind them.

"Is this seriously the room?" rhetorically asked Saria, attempting to turn around with her crutch.

"Where do we sleep?" asked Skadi, glancing at Saria. She shrugged before Skadi got an idea. She peeled off the tan beige couch cushions and tossed them to the side of the room to reveal a handle; it was a pull-out couch. She pulled on the red handle and walked backward, but was stopped by the desk getting behind her; the mattress wasn't even halfway unfolded. She began to put the mattress back in before Saria interrupted.

"No, no. I'll get it." She said, pushing the desk back towards the wall with her good side.

"Thanks," Skadi said, pulling the mattress out fully, which wasn't pretty either. Luckily it was just short enough to fit in the room, and it was covered by a decently clean beige sheet. Skadi picked up the discarded couch cushions off of the floor.

"That's a little too small for us," said Skadi, loosely gesturing to the short double bed. It wasn't that they couldn't fit, it would just be incredibly awkward to do so.

"You sleep on the bed," said Saria, pulling out the chair that was stuck in the door earlier.

"No, your leg is still injured, just sleep in the bed yourself."

"It is fine. It's more comfortable to sleep here." Saria said, stiffly sitting down in the chair. "See? I'm alright. It's easier for me."

"I know that isn't comfortable. Just lay down."

"Where would you sleep?" she asked, shifting the way she sat. Skadi looked around for a second, her eyes eventually looking at the cushions she was holding.

"Here," she said, throwing the misshapen seat cushions on top of the desk. "This will work." She sloppily shoved the pencil cup and telephone off of the desk and awkwardly laid down. The desk was a little shorter than she was, and she had to let her knees bend off the side to fit. The cushions didn't cover the whole desk, either; her thighs angled down awkwardly before her knees bent.

"That doesn't look comfortable." Stated Saria, crossing her arms and resting her elbows down on the armrest. "Just lay in the bed."

"You're taller than me, it would just be worse," Skadi said, looking up at the broken ceiling. "Sleep on the mattress, at least tonight. Please." Saria looked down as she thought. She was a little ashamed but reluctantly obliged. She slowly lifted herself out of the chair and onto the mattress, making it even more awkward to do so due to the fact that she still had her combat dress on, instead of something more freeing. It's not like they had any time to pack their old dorm supplies tonight, or room to comfortably change for that matter. She flopped onto her back and laid down with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at the ugly ceiling with Skadi.

"Just for tonight," Saria said out of the blue.

"Hm?" asked Skadi.

"We'll swap places every other night, make it fair."

"Fine," said Skadi, leaning up from the desk and reaching for the light switch. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


	8. Chapter 8 (Scion)

_Listed below are the routes you will be taking today to scavenge valuable supplies and gather intel. Your route is shared with your roommates, meaning that most of you will be going in pairs. Saria is expected to stay at the base today due to her injuries, and I will be out of today's scheduling as well. As usual, I expect everybody to be back before 20:00 for supper. Focus and complete your missions._

_-Kal'tsit_

_Skadi: Benedict High School, far Southwest across the canal. Take the car._

_Angelina & Grani: Diamond Marina/surrounding buildings, East._

_Schwarz & Exusiai: Morgan public park district, Northeast._

_Hoshiguma & Gavial: TTI LLC Ferry docks and nearby piers, South._

_Broca & Scavenger: Apartment construction complex, located north of freeway turn, East._

_Indra & Siege: Ludington state shopping center, Northeast._

_Firewatch: At base, Help unpack supplies._

* * *

Saria stared at this sign alone, awake bright and early in preparation for the first morning meeting with the new members. It was a piece of printer paper, neatly written in blue ink, taped to the door to the conference hall. She had a little trouble reading it since it was early enough in the morning to still be dark outside. She was annoyed by this note, considering that Kal'tsit was taking over leadership without even being there for most of the time. She ignored it and opened the door to the conference room, looking to make some coffee in the few moments of alone time she had.

The coffee pot began filling when Skadi walked into the conference room, checking out the letter before fully entering.

"You're up early," said Saria, still staring at the dripping pot. Skadi nodded and avoided verbally answering. Saria wanted to ask her if the lack of sleep was because of the uncomfortable desk she slept on, but she decided to just assume so instead. Skadi tiredly wandered around for a little bit, both of them remaining silent in thought. The coffee machine slowly finished its cycle and Saria poured out a mug for herself, only adding a little bit of powdered creamer. She gestured to the coffee machine, welcoming Skadi to a cup, to which the bounty hunter shook her head. Saria leaned her crutch against the counter and used the table to support herself instead. After a few minutes of this silence, Skadi cut in.

"You're not staying at the base today, I'm guessing?" Saria took a long sip out of her mug before responding.

"What makes you think that?"

"You're drinking coffee again, and you're fully dressed for patrol," said Skadi, placing her sword on the table next to the shield and syringe left there from yesterday, signaling to that as well. Saria hadn't really thought about it that way, but she was amused by how she noticed the actions.

"I haven't decided yet," said Saria, swirling around her mug, now contemplating the journey.

"You need to rest today, your injury still needs some time to heal," said Skadi, noticing how Saria was a little lost in thought.

"I would find a way to help without walking much if I did go out today," responded Saria, attempting to reassure Skadi. "I could drive instead of patrolling."

"I'm the only person using the car today, it would be no use," said Skadi, pacing around the room. "Your leg will be fine, you just for another day or two."

"I'm not spending another day waiting around, we need every helping hand with the reunion threat," said Saria, serious as ever. "I'm driving, otherwise I'll be walking around instead of resting." Skadi shook her head and wandered around the room for a few moments in contemplation.

"Tsk, fine. You are driving and nothing more. Let's get going before the others wake up, I don't want to cause any extra complications."

Saria swiftly finished her coffee and the two got their supplies for the day. Saria left her syringe behind since it would be hard to carry with the crutch. They found the car keys near Scavenger's dorm and made their way out to the car, driving west towards the high school.

"This seems pretty far for a solo mission," said Skadi, about ten minutes through the drive. Saria thought about it for a second.

"It is a little suspicious. Stay on high alert, the doctor may need special intel from this place."

"I'm used to fighting alone, don't worry about me," said Skadi, looking out of the windshield. "Be careful and make sure nobody sees you in the car."

"I'll park a few blocks away and you can walk there to be safe, you don't need to worry about me. This is a good place to stop," she said, noticing the cluster of cars surrounding the sidestreet they were driving on. The cars were enough to block their vehicle, but could easily be walked through. Skadi got out and grabbed her sword, while Saria shut off the engine. Skadi kept the door open to hear what she had to say. Saria instead opened her door and stood on the driver's side, addressing Skadi with respect despite her own leg injury.

"I won't be far from here, find me whenever your mission is complete."

"I won't be long, don't walk around anymore," responded Skadi. Suddenly, a quiet snap sounded throughout the street, followed by a distant projectile whistle.

"Stop." Saria hushed, crouching and walking down behind the car trunk for cover. Skadi gave a small gesture to ask why. "Be quiet for a second." Another quiet snap and whistle of an arrow shot pushed through the air, making a sound that was easy to miss. Skadi looked at Saria and nodded, now understanding why. She slowly crouched and walked over to the back of the car with Saria.

"Sounds like a bow, it could be Faust." the bounty hunter whispered, breaking the silence. "Stay right here."

"We don't know for sure who it is," Saria whispered back. She placed her palms on the back of the car and looked over at the buildings nearby. "I need you to get a better view, can you go on top of that cafe's roof and give me an all-clear?"

"By your command," Skadi said, stealthily walking across the street and into the broken glass entrance. Saria waited to see some kind of symbol on the roof. It was very hard to see from where Saria was hiding. She waited for about a minute in tense anticipation, doing her best to hide while keeping the cafe in sight.

"Drop the shield." said a female voice from behind Saria. She attempted to turn her head a little to see her to no avail. "Drop it," she said before she could turn around. Through the reflection in the grimy car window, Saria could see floating blades behind her, as well as Faust aiming a crossbow at her head at a different angle. She dropped her shield straight down.

"Good." continued the voice. "Who else is with you today?" Saria remained silent, simply staring at the car window to attempt to see what was going on with both the reunion and Skadi. Skadi showed no signs or signals from the cafe roof as Saria desperately looked for one.

"She's wasting time," said Faust, quickly glancing at all of the nearby buildings.

"Surprising. Let's just cut to the chase here, we know who was supposed to be all the way out here today." responded the voice. She looked down at Saria and noticed her bandages, obvious from the way Saria was kneeling. She stomped on the top of it, changing Saria's silence into a wincing flurry of pain, sending her coiling up on the ground as the sharp pain shot up her leg. The enemy then pushed Saria onto her stomach, then pressed her heel sharply onto the back of her neck. It was pressing Saria's face against the grimy asphalt and heavily limiting her breathing. "Where is she?" asked the voice once more, dramatically pausing before each word. Saria motioned with her hand towards her neck, asking for some reduced tension. Instead of letting up, the enemy pushed harder on her spine.

Suddenly, the three of them heard an echoing rumble from down the street. The tension on Saria's neck slightly loosened as the antagonist looked around at the buildings along with Faust. Another rumble struck the air. Making the enemy fully step off of Saria's neck. She rolled onto her back to see Frostnova standing battle-ready with blades floating around her body. She snapped her view to another rumbling sound, this time followed by a crumbling noise. She couldn't see over the car door, so she attempted to stand to see where the damage was coming from. Faust quickly stopped her from doing so and aimed his crossbow at her head, ignoring the other sounds. Another crumble sound hit even closer than before.

"Come out here!" calmly yelled Frostnova to the empty street. Faust still aimed at Saria but seemed more worried about his own well being. The rumbling and breaking abruptly stopped, leaving the street in an eerie silence. Frostnova turned back around to Saria, this time kneeling down to come face-to-face with her. "Things will go badly for you if you don't tell us what you know, and fast." impatiently asked Frostnova, getting uncomfortably close to Saria's face and giving intense eye contact while fiddling with one of the ice blades. Another small rustle was heard, this time sounding very close.

"Frostnova?" said Faust, turning away from the two and towards the wall behind them.

"Not now." she coldly stated, not even turning around to look at him. "I need-"

"Frostnova!" screamed Faust, readying his crossbow and aiming it at the wall. She began to turn away from Saria as the wall burst apart, sending concrete and glass debris flying in a beautiful cone towards them. Skadi stood in the wake, sword held high across her shoulder from the swing. The debris flung all over the three, but most of it was blocked from Saria by the angle Frostnova was at. Faust was hit by a flurry of cement chunks, while the other two were mostly hit by smaller pieces and a blast of dust.

Faust quickly readjusted himself and let off the third shot from his crossbow, the arrow whistling through the air and hitting Skadi's right hand at an odd angle. She screamed through gritted teeth in pain and jumped back behind cover. Saria used the opportunity to shove Frostnova off of the top of her, scrambling up and kicking the back of Faust's knee as well. She sprinted over to Skadi, ignoring the throbbing pain in her leg; She grabbed Skadi's shoulders and guided her to the closest door. The two adversaries got up without seeing where they headed, and so they scrambled off to chase for them. Faust had a better idea of where to go since he ran straight into the building while Frostnova rushed into the nearby alley to search.

Skadi and Saria ran into a long hallway, Hearing footsteps far behind them, they quickly opened the nearest doorway. It was a small cluttered janitor's closet, but they were out of time to move. They squished themselves inside and slammed the door shut, Saria standing behind and awkwardly placing one of her legs to the side on a box to make just enough room for Skadi to fit. They pressed against each other with the door closed, back to chest. Both of them tried to silence their breathing for the sake of stealth, but Skadi was quietly hyperventilating through gritted teeth, gripping her own right hand in pain. The closet was small enough that Saria could feel Skadi's heavy breaths against her torso.

"What's wrong?" quickly whispered Saria, attempting to look over Skadi's shoulder. Skadi silently lifted her right hand up to her, revealing a mangled pinkie finger and a blood-covered hand. Saria grabbed the hand and held it up for a second to examine it in the little light the closet had through the door frame. The finger was missing upwards from the middle joint; It was bleeding profusely as Skadi continued to try to slow the breathing.

Faust sprinted out of the broken room and ran down the hall, his shoes clacking loudly against the linoleum floor, loud enough for the other two to hear it in the closet. Saria quickly covered Skadi's mouth and squeezed Skadi's hand in worry, Skadi instinctively squeezing it back. They could feel both of their hearts racing and their breathing becoming deeper as the swift footsteps got closer and closer to the door.

The footsteps began to fade away in the opposite direction they came from; he must have thought they ran down the hall instead of hiding. The two still stood in intense silence, waiting to hear if any more steps were to be heard after a few minutes, to which they heard none. Saria felt some of the tension on Skadi's shoulders drop, so she let the one hand off of her mouth. Skadi loosened her grip on Saria's hand a little, making Saria realize that she was still holding it. They both let go and quietly walked out of the closet, being extremely careful to not make the door squeak.

Skadi looked down at her own hand, covered in blood, and then to Saria's hand to see it was now covered in the same blood as well. She looked into the closet and took out an old paper towel roll, sloppily ripped open the plastic packaging and gave a bunch of sheets to Saria before cleaning her own hand. They quickly and quietly wiped down their hands as they walked out the opposite direction from Faust, headed for their car.


	9. Chapter 9 (Sanguine)

"Well, it looks to be alright for the most part…" said Gavial, examining Skadi's hand in the infirmary. "Just avoid any heavy lifting and excessive sword swinging for a few days and it should all be good!"

"And there's no way to get it back?" asked Skadi, already knowing the answer.

"Nah, not with what we have here at least. Besides, the rest of your finger wasn't exactly neatly cut, y'know?"

"I understand. Thank you, Gavial."

"No problem!" she said, finishing the bandage wrapping on her hand. "You want me to bring you dinner?"

"No, I can sit at the table, it's fine."

"Suit yourself then," Gavial said, standing up with a grunt. "I think they are almost done in there anyways, so we better hurry up." The two stood up and walked down the hallway, into the conference room. The entire team, excluding Kal'tsit, were sitting around the long table eating their MRE's and talking about their days. Skadi and Gavial found their usual seats, food packs already placed where they were sitting.

"Oh, wow!" yelled out Gavial, holding up her MRE. "Spinach Fettuccine, how did you guys know this was my favorite!" she sarcastically said, shaking her head and laughing along with some of the squadmates.

"Hey, you know I had to snatch that BBQ beef pack when I saw it!" Exusiai joked, triumphantly holding up the desert for her food pack: Apple pie bites!

"Hey, at least nobody had it as bad as Schwarz!" Indra said, nudging her on the shoulder.

"What did you have, Schwarz?" asked Angelina. Schwarz slowly finished chewing her food and answered.

"Vegetable omelet. It's not bad."

"Long shot from that Rim Billiton food, I bet!" joked Grani, trying to get more conversation out of her.

"Mhm." Schwarz responded, taking another bite.

"Okay… uh, what do you have, Skadi?"

"Lemon pepper tuna."

"Oh man, sorry to stick you with a bad one too, we-"

"No, this is my favorite one," she said, opening the pack.

"Well, that's good!" Grani responded, ducking her eyes down from being a little embarrassed. Saria noticed the awkward silence pursuing the table, so she changed the subject.

"What did everybody find on their missions today?" she asked, looking to the left of her at Schwarz and Exusiai. The grey-haired sniper was still busy eating her meal, and Exusiai was chomping on some of the apple pie bites mentioned earlier.

"We- mm- We didn't really find anything interesting or mission-related." Exusiai said, swallowing the last of her desert. "The park was surprisingly nice! You know, beneath the nasty litter and reunion graffiti."

"The graffiti may be a callsign of theirs; I've seen similar things used before."

"Good thinking. See what you can decipher next time you see them," said Saria. "Anything to report from you two?" she asked, looking at Gavial and Hoshiguma. Gavial was occupied with eating her food.

"We found a lot of empty cargo containers, but we couldn't explore everything today." said Hoshiguma, looking around at the table. "We did find an old cargo ship that was stuck out in the water, it could have something important."

"Good eye, you should see what intel you can gather for it tomorrow. You two?" asked Saria, looking onwards.

"We found some old broken boats, nothing mission-related, but Angelina found a cool necklace!" mentioned Grani.

"Oh, yeah, it's a cheap dolphin necklace that we found in some tourist shop. It's tacky, but I sorta like it!" Angelina said, holding up the small pendant.

"Ooo, you should give that to Skadi!" called out Indra.

"Oh, yeah, okay." said Angelina, sounding a little disappointed.

"You can keep the necklace." said Skadi, after politely chewing a piece of tuna. Angelina smiled back at her.

"Firewatch, you were at base today, correct?" asked Saria, continuing the debriefing.

"Yes, nothing to report," she replied.

"Alright. On to you two, what was at the shopping center?" asked Saria.

"Fuckin' nothing!" impatiently yelled out Indra, laughing a little afterward. "We figured something interesting would be there, but nah, it's picked clean. Isn't that right, Siege?" Indra punched the lion girl on the shoulder, snapping her out of her doze.

"Yeah?" she asked, rubbing her eyes a little.

"Tell em' about the mall!"

"Oh, alright. The mall was abandoned, but it did look like some people were living there after the catastrophe… It's really strange." Siege said, sitting up in her seat. "There were a whole lot of empty cots and boxes everywhere…"

"How come you didn't tell me you saw this?" Indra interrupted, sounding offended.

… Which means that we need to stay on our guard since there are so few of us." Siege continued, disregarding Indra and finishing her sentence. "Indra, I thought you noticed."

"Well, I think you should be telling me all this instead of taking a nap every-"

"Enough." Saria interrupted. She was finished with her meal and wanted to dismiss everybody already. She moved onto the last two people. "Broca, Scavenger, find anything?"

"Nothing." quickly answered Broca, looking down and continuing to eat the last of his food.

"Nothing for either of you two to report?" asked Saria.

"Aw, come on Scav, we know you brought back something!" cut in Grani.

"No… Not today," said Scavenger, almost sounding disappointed. Nobody talked and the eyes were on her, to which she looked down at her meal tray embarrassedly.

"Alright, remember to write your findings in your official reports, you are dismissed to your on-base duties." Saria said, placing her fork down onto her almost empty tray. Most of the squad got up and walked out of the room, with Skadi and Exusiai staying behind.

"Hey, Saria?" asked Exusiai, walking closer to her.

"Yes?"

"I hate to ask this, but…" Exusiai said, looking down at Saria's meal tray. She pointed to a small unopened foil pack. "...are you going to eat those?"

"The dried pineapple bites?"

"Yeah."

"Go ahead." Saria said, tossing the bag to Exusiai, who caught it perfectly with one hand.

"Thank you so much!" she responded, quickly running out of the room. Saria and Skadi heard her yelling in the halls, muffled by the distance: "Yo! Siege! I got the pineapple bites!"

Saria caught herself snickering a little bit, suddenly remembering she wasn't alone, although she wasn't embarrassed to laugh a little in front of Skadi anymore. Skadi stood up from her chair and walked closer to where Saria sat.

"Do you need help with your tray?" asked Skadi, hand already going towards the table.

"Sure," Saria said, picking up the tray and lifting it the little distance between their hands. Skadi grabbed the tray and walked it over to the washbasin, grabbing Saria's crutch on the way back.

"Is your leg feeling any better?" asked Skadi, leaning the crutch near Saria and sitting down in the next chair.

"Yes… I don't think Faust broke anything, but it definitely stings still. How is your hand?"

"It's fine," Skadi said, placing her bandaged hand on the table for Saria to see. "It's still sore, but Gavial said it should be alright. I hope it doesn't affect my sword technique much."

"I'm sure you'll learn to adapt," said Saria, glancing at the injury. "You may just need to stay out of combat for a few days, and I probably should too, considering my leg."

Skadi exhaled a little, looking down at their bandages.

"Is anything wrong?" asked Saria. Skadi stayed silent a few moments before answering.

"I'm a little worried about keeping this all a secret, with everybody catching on to this big reunion presence. I don't want people to worry, but I'm a little afraid about us not being able to fend them off."

"I think telling the others on the team may be beneficial," said Saria. Skadi looked up at her with worried eyes. "But I still owe you my word, considering my mistake with Jessica and the hotel. If you believe that keeping it confidential is the best course of action, then I will follow along with it."

"Alright, thank you. Sorry for bringing this up again."

"No, it's smart to talk about this. Don't be afraid to bring it up," said Saria. She could still tell that Skadi was a little uneasy. "It's a smart plan. Considering our strength to the team, I'd rather have us be in good health during the fight than be injured from constant scouting."

"Alright," said Skadi rising from her chair. "Are you ready to go back to the dorm?"

"Yes," said Saria. The bounty hunter held out her uninjured hand, to which Saria grabbed and used it to help her stand. Skadi passed the crutch over and the two began walking out of the conference room.

"Remember, you're sleeping on the bed tonight."

"That's not nesc-"

"We agreed yesterday, besides, you need the extra rest with your hand."

"Fine," Skadi said annoyedly. After a few moments of silence, she continued. "Thank you."

They entered the tiny dorm room once more, and noticed that boxes of their things had been put by the door by Firewatch. Skadi picked up the small cardboard boxes and pushed open the door, to which she suddenly remembered the lack of space. She placed the boxes on top of the filing cabinet and held the door open for Saria to enter.

"Do you need anything from your box?" asked Skadi, after the door closed.

"Yeah, could you look around for a small black bag?" Saria asked. Skadi dug through with her good arm and found a black tote bag. "That's the one, thank you."

"What's in it?"

"My clothes; I should change out of this uniform for a night."

"Yeah, I should do the same," Skadi responded, sifting through her own gear and finding her clothes. They both changed into their pajamas, Saria wearing a white floor-length nightgown and Skadi changing into long navy board shorts and a soft button-up shirt. Skadi hung her hat on the small door hook while Saria quietly struggled to lay on the desk. The two eventually settled in their separate sleeping positions, and Saria flicked off the lights.

"Goodnight, Skadi," said Saria.

"Goodnight," responded Skadi. She fell asleep pretty fast, while Saria struggled to get comfortable. It got to be pretty late at night before Saria managed to drift off to a light slumber before she was disturbed by talking in the hall late into the night.

"-easier to talk over-"

"-mean, sure, but I don't really-"

Saria sat up in the desk-bed, and tried to listen closer, although she was still groggy and exhausted. She tried to look at the clock in the warped moonlight- it was around 1am, way past the usual bedtime. She quietly took her box off the top of the filing cabinet and began searching for a flashlight, carefully trying to not wake Skadi.

"You know better than this… follow where the money is at."

"Why the fuck are you thinking about this?"

"Stop talking so damn loud! It's easy money, Blacksteel would have jumped at the opportunity the second they knew about it, you need to act now," angrily whispered Broca without an immediate response, as Exusiai simply stared at him with angered eyes. "And now that you know, if you don't help, we'll have to make things more difficult."

"Why are you asking me to do this?! You know that I'm not exactly the criminal type."

"I said keep your voice down." he scowled, checking the hall to make sure nobody heard.

"Stop getting so mad, you're the one causing the problems here!"

"What do you want me to do? You're making me mad! Just shut up and-"

"No, fuck that! If you're so worried, you would-"

"I said SHUT UP!" screamed Broca, right-hook punching her in the eye with exceptional force. She recoiled and held her face, looking back up at Broca's angry eyes for a few seconds. She rushed to grab her gun and Broca swung again, this time throwing off her balance and making her stumble into a shelf. Her SMG tumbled to the ground and she went to pick it up again, but Broca grabbed her by the hoodie collar and struck the same spot again, drenching her face in blood.

"Change your mind?" he growled, holding up Exusiai's blood-splattered collar close to his face. Exusiai spit bloody saliva at Broca's face and responded:

"You motherf-" She quickly stopped again as he slammed the same spot, and continued to hit the eye over and over again. This ruckus fully woke up Saria, who quietly stood up in her room and began to walk out. Exusiai stopped trying to hold herself up as Broca still gripped on her collar. She slowly lapsed out of consciousness as the strikes kept coming, crushing her right eye and sending more blood streaming.

"What are you doing?" called out Saria from a distance, shining the flashlight at Broca's hunched body but not fully seeing the situation. Broca turned around, arms dripping with blood, the flashlight illuminating the bloody knuckles with clarity. Saria did not show any kind of shock in her expression to Broca's surprise.

"It's really none of your business," he said, arms still shaking from adrenaline.

"It looks like it is. Tell me."

"Saria, listen to me," Broca said, intimidatingly. He was having difficulty suppressing his rage. "You're going to go back to your dorm, and never say a thing about this. Understand?" Saria looked up at him with her usual stone-cold face, giving no expression or emotion.

"Tell me what happened."

"Did you not fucking hear me?" Broca asked, getting hotheaded quickly. "Walk away, or something worse will happen to you." A few moments of tense silence and staring continued between the two. Saria could hear the muffled groans of Exusiai breathing from far away.

"You're not strong enough to do that." She forboded, staring him straight in the eyes.

"Don't test me," he said, maintaining the stare. Neither of them moved away from each other. Broca's face quickly turned from discontent to fury as he stomped on Saria's injured foot, instantly making her recoil and knocking her off balance. She dropped the flashlight during her fall and grimaced in frustration. He quickly made a run for the elevator as Saria struggled to stand and chase him, leg throbbing with pain. The door closed, and Saria scrambled to press the call buttons to no avail.

She cut her losses and hobbled over to Exusiai, groaning on the ground in a pool of blood, but still breathing. She kneeled down and brushed the blood-soaked matted hair away from her damaged eye, revealing a mess of cuts and swelling, her left eye socket darkened and malformed. Saria quickly got up and pushed herself to Gavial and Hoshiguma's room, quickly swinging open the door and shaking Gavial awake.

"Mmmh, w-what?" Gavial grumbled, shifting around and opening her eyes.

"Gavial, we need you down the hall, now."

"What happened?" she asked, still groggy from the interrupted sleep.

"Exusiai is injured, bad. I need to leave and you need to give her medical attention."

"Alright sure, how bad is it?" the medic asked, sitting up in the bed. Saria shook her head, pulled her out of bed, and led her to the hallway.

"Her face is beaten, she's by the elevator."

"W-wait what?" Gavial asked as Saria hobbled down towards her dorm. "What the hell happened?" Saria didn't elaborate, and instead ran to her own down and swung open the door. Skadi was lightly sleeping on the pull-out mattress, facing the ceiling. Saria hated to wake her up, but she had to.

"Skadi!" Saria yelled, shaking her shoulder. She quickly snapped out of her rest.

"Hm?" she asked, turning her head to face her. "Wh- How early is it?"

"Grab the car keys, we have to go. NOW."

"What's happening?" she asked, already up from the bed and searching for the keys despite an explanation.

"I'll explain on the way!"


	10. Chapter 10 (Edelweiss)

"Wait, wait, Saria!" Gavial said, standing from her kneel as the two tried to rush past. Excusiai laid right next to her on the floor. "What the fuck is going on!?"

Saria stood still for a moment, contemplating in the darkness, Skadi standing right next to her. "We're having problems within the team."

"Wh-" Gavial stuttered, still shocked from seeing Exusiai's condition. "What do you mean?"

"Something happened between her and Broca."

"He- wait…"  
"Gavial, we don't know much, and we have to leave," Skadi stated, turning back around to Saria and signaling to move. "We need you to do what you can to help her."

"Alright, yeah, sure." Gavial exasperatedly said, with the other two, briskly walking to the elevator. She quickly kneeled down to Exusiai, instantly checking her pulse, which was very fast.

"Shit, Exusiai, can you hear me?" Exusiai kind of groaned, opening her eyes, revealing large pupils and one blood-soaked eye. Exusiai looked around a little and her gaze found Gavial, watching her scan the area for something to clean the face. Gavial looked back down at Exuaisi. "Can you talk?"

"I- uh- ah." Exusiai stumbled, gently rolling her head side to side.

"Can you tell me what's going on?" asked Gavial. She hated to ask these procedural questions but was a part of the military medical system she had to follow.

"Yeah, I'm- uh- I'm okay."

"You don't look okay, are you in any pain right now?" Gavial asked, hating to waste time but knowing she was required to ask, suppressing her worries and trying her hardest to remain calm. Exusiai drifted off again, staring at the ceiling and losing consciousness again. Gavial leaned her over on the side, making sure she didn't choke on any blood. The medic quickly looked around for something to stop the bleeding, panicking a little in the process. She was used to chaos in her medical procedure, but her emotions got the best of her with the suddenness of it all.

"Gavial, is everything alright?" asked a voice from far behind, startling Gavial. She turned around to see a very tall silhouette with a small horn out the top of its head, standing in the dim dawn lighting from the window.

"Hoshiguma, hey!" Gavial desperately yelled out, relieved that somebody was there to help. "Run over here!"

The oni was confused, but hustled over anyways. She stopped when the sight of Exusiai was apparent. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, something happened with Broca and her and now I think he's gone," Gavial said, the charismatic charm absent from her voice. She shook her head and continued. "Fuck, I just need your help, we need to get her to the infirmary!"

Hoshiguma nodded and ran to the opposite side of Exusiai, kneeling down and putting her arms under the marksman's neck and knees. Gavial moved forward to help her lift but was too late as Hoshiguma had already lifted her up.

"Where's the infirmary?"

"Down the hall, I'll lead the way." Gavial blurted, rushing down to the corridor. Hoshiguma ran to catch up, both of their shoes squeaking on the ground. Gavial stopped and shoved the old cafe door and held it open for Hoshiguma to sprint inside, ducking her head so as to not hit the doorframe. They both acted fast as Hoshiguma gently laid Exusiai down onto one of the couches while Gavial scrambled for supplies. She ran back to the couch with an armful of boxes and bottles.

"Light this." Gavial commanded, handing over the white-gas lantern from the drinking party. She flicked the gas alight, illuminating the couch and the low table next to it. Gavial dumped the supplies down and began sifting through the disorganized tools.

"What are you looking for?" asked Hoshiguma, kneeling down across the table. Gavial was already putting on a pair of medical gloves.

"I ah- I need something to clean it, a pair of medical scissors, and we'll see from there." Hoshiguma nodded and began searching with her, rumbling through the boxes. The oni found a roll of paper towel and passed it over to Gavial, continuing to look for the scissors as Gavial cleaned the blood from her face.

"These are the ones, right?" asked Hoshiguma, holding up a pair of flat-ended shears.

"Yeah, give it here," said Gavial, taking the scissors from her hands. "Now, I need you to look around for a peroxide bottle and a flat red case with a bunch of bandages in it." Hoshiguma nodded and searched again as Gavial cut off Exusiai's blood-matted shirt and hoodie, revealing a laceration and a dark bruise on her shoulder. Exusiai stirred awake again, her pulse still high, and her consciousness still low. She began to quietly hyperventilate, seeing all of the blood staining her neck and torso.

"I need you to calm down, and I need you to breathe," Gavial said, gently placing her hand on her shoulder. "Deep breaths, there you go."

"I got everything," said Hoshiguma, kneeling down next to Gavial and placing the items down on the empty couch space. Gavial quickly picked up the peroxide and poured it into a rag from the table. She then began to move the rag arm towards the arm cut, but stopped herself, turning to make eye contact with Exusiai.

"I shouldn't be telling you this… but this is gonna hurt like hell. Brace yourself." Gavial pressed the bandage into the gash, the peroxide fizzing and making Exusiai flinch and squirm in pain. Hoshiguma held her down so Gavial could finish.

"Can you please bandage that?"

"On it," said Hoshiguma, digging through the red box and finding a red bandage. Gavial tossed the old rag away and grabbed a new one, soaking it in a fresh layer of peroxide. The marksman tilted her head upwards and saw Gavial holding up the disinfecting rag.

"Shu… Shit." Exusiai mumbled out, shaking her head. Hoshiguma finished the wrapping and looked back at the table.

"Here, bite this, it will help with the pain," Hoshiguma said, passing over a thick tourniquet strap. Exusiai reluctantly held it in her teeth, heart racing as she anticipated the peroxide. Gavial held up the rag near the injured face but stopped herself again, longer this time.

"You need to do this," said Hoshiguma, reassuring the medic.

"I'm sorry, Exusiai," Gavial said as she pushed the rag into Exusiai's facial cuts, making her writhe with pain, almost smacking the medic's hand out of the way. Hoshiguma held down Exusiai's arms as Gavial continued. Exusiai's muffled screams were drowned out by the fizzing peroxide and her violently kicking legs at the end of the couch. Gavial finished the cleaning as quickly as she could, but by the time she was done, the marksman had passed out from the pain once again. The two green-haired girls took deep breaths, the hardest part of the procedure over.

"I'm gonna examine it and parch her up. You can go back to sleep if you want to." Gavial said, a tinge of exhaustion in her voice. Hoshiguma nodded and walked out of the infirmary doors.

Gavial finished up the procedure, checked all of the injuries and bandaged Exusiai up, giving her a gauze pad on her eye and another bandage strip wrapped around her head to hold it in place. She tried to push the crimson hair in front of the bandage, and it concealed it pretty well. It wasn't needed, but it made Gavial feel a little better about the situation. She stood up with a deep exhale and exited without cleaning up the extra clutter on the table. To her surprise, she found Hoshiguma leaning back against the wall, looking out into the dark night through the window.

"Everything good for the night?" asked the towering oni, looking over at Gavial for a dismissal.

"Yeah, you can go back to bed."

"Do you have the time?"

"No," Gavial said, checking her wrist jokingly. She continued in an exhausted voice. "I know it's late as shit, though. Or early, however you see it."

"Is everything alright with you?"

"Hm?"

"You were weirdly serious during that whole thing."

"Well yeah." Gavial reminisced. "I kinda need to show a serious face in bad medical situations."

"I get it, I just wanted to check."

"Yeah, yeah, it's all good," Gavial said, leaning herself back onto the wall and giving a long exhale. Hoshiguma stayed silent and crossed her arms. "It was all just a little… sudden. You know?"

"Yeah, I understand," Hoshiguma said, glancing over at Gavial. "I'm guessing betrayal isn't common in the Archosauria clan?"

"Yeah, I'm- uh- surprised you remembered."

"You have a crocodile tail, you know."

"You know what I mean," Gavial said, laughing a little. "Betrayal is a pretty usual thing for your line of work, imma guess from your asking?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"It was a yes or no question."

"Alright, I can take a hint," said Gavial, crossing her arms as well. "Sorry for all the questions."

"We can talk more about this off duty, we have a job to do now."

"Yeah, yeah. It's all good," said Gavial, her voice less lively and loud than it usually is. The two stood with their arms crossed, looking off of the balcony walkway and out to the early morning darkness.

"I might as well get changed for the day." the defender said, leaning off of the wall. She began to slowly walk back to the dorm room but noticed the uncharacteristic silence from Gavial. Hoshiguma stopped and turned her head to the side.

"It's never easy to watch a friend in pain," said Hoshiguma, before walking too far to hear. "It's alright to be upset about this, you know."

"...I know."

"Should we be stopping here?" asked Skadi, as Saria parked the car, small pieces of glass and concrete rubble breaking beneath the wheels. The headlights illuminated the debris-filled city street they were in in the morning.

"We'll be good, we just got set up last time," said Saria, shutting off the headlights and taking the keys out of the car. "Just be wary of the rubble, now."

They both opened their car doors into the murky night atmosphere, moonlight dimly lighting the way. The sound of crickets and cicadas filled the warm night, only being off-putting due to the fact that they were standing in the overgrown remnants of a city. The two quietly walked down the sidewalk, Skadi walking slowly for Saria to catch up.

"Are you sure we can see the school from the top of the cafe?" asked Saria, shuffling over a pile of glass shards.

"I'm not sure, but we can find a way around if it doesn't work out." responded Skadi. They both walked over to the coffee shop, Skadi holding the door open. They both entered and the translucent door creaked to a close behind them, making long shadows creep across the trashed store. The two stumbled around in the dark and made their way to the back of the store, climbing an access ladder to the roof.

"I can't see that far, can you?" asked Skadi.

"No, this is a bad spot for the stakeout, we should keep moving," Saria responded. They looked around at the area around them. "Here, we can get into these apartments."

Skadi walked up to the edge to find a long-abandoned shipping truck, parked in the alleyway with the cargo hold sitting below a window.

"Are you sure you can make that jump?" asked Skadi, worried about her leg injury.

"Yeah, I just have to make sure I land right," Saria said, already backing up.

"Wait," said Skadi, walking back with her. "Let me go first."

"Be careful." pleaded Saria. Skadi took a running start and jumped across the short alleyway, slamming to a successful landing on the hollow truck bed. She turned around and gave Saria a thumbs-up. She tied the bottom part of her long nightgown up, making sure there wasn't any excess cloth that would hinder her, and she ran. She used all her weight on her good leg, leaping over the gap and attempting to land on her good leg as well. She hit the edge of the cargo box and landed in a kneel, making a loud slam noise.

"Are you alright?" asked Skadi, walking up to her and offering her hand to get up. Saria grabbed her hand and lifted herself up off the ledge.

"I'm all good."

"Alright, we need to get to that window now.", said Skadi, pointing to the window that was a few feet above them. She walked underneath and kneeled down, holding out her cupped hands. "Come on, I'll give you a boost."

Saria got boosted up to the (luckily unlocked) window and crawled inside, turning around and holding out her hand for Skadi to grab on. Skadi leaped up and their grips locked, only to quickly disconnect and make Skadi fall back to the truck.

"Ah!" Skadi yelped as she smacked her head against the cargo bed.

"What happened? Are you alright?" quickly asked Saria, leaning out of the window. Skadi was holding her head and examining her bandages.

"I -agh- I grabbed with the wrong hand," Skadi said, holding her arm out, blood dripping through the dressings. "I'll try again, sorry"

"Be cautious," Saria said, leaning into the window frame again, lower than she did before. Skadi jumped up and grabbed her hand with the undamaged one. They both successfully entered the building and made their way to the overgrown rooftop, met again with the murky light and loud chirping of the nighttime.

"So, we're looking for Broca going to the high school, right?"

"Him, as well as anybody else walking around. This is most likely their base, but I don't want to make any confirmations until I see anybody," said Saria, leaning forward on the edge wall of the roof. "See that light?" asked Saria, pointing to a classroom window.

"Yes," said Skadi, noticing the contrast in the darkness. "Nowhere else in the city except for our base should have power, right?"

"Exactly. Now we just have to wait to see what enters and leaves, and we'll know for sure. Keep an eye out for Kal'tsit."

"Understood," said Skadi, standing next to Saria. "We should probably get comfortable, this is a stakeout after all."

"Right, this will take a while," responded Saria, turning around to look for a sitting place. "We should probably tell the others where we're at."

"Yeah, good idea."

"Tsk," Saria suddenly blurted out, quickly checking the pockets of her nightgown.

"What?" asked Skadi.

"We forgot the radio."

"Oh, man," Skadi said, quickly double-checking her pockets. "Maybe one of us could quickly drive back, pick up some supplies and come back."

"I should be fine up here, you should go."

"You know I'm not gonna leave you next to a reunion base all alone."

"Neither am I."

"I know," said Skadi. After a second of thought, she smiled and gave a quiet exhale of laughter. "Yeah, I know."

"Whatever, we can just try to get back before sunrise, Gavial knows we're gone," Saria said. "Let's get comfortable."

Saria lifted herself up onto an AC unit, turning around and sitting with her legs dangling off of the edge. Skadi walked over and sat down close to her, nearly shoulder to shoulder since the vent wasn't really big enough for the two of them. They sat in contemplative silence, overlooking the school compound for any movements for a long time before either of them said anything.

"Is something wrong?" asked Skadi, noticing that Saria's sight drifted away and was blankly looking up into the starry sky.

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing, really. These weird bug noises are just reminding me of home."

"I see. Did you used to live in Colombia?"

"Yeah, but I grew up far from here. I lived in a big town on the eastern outskirts with my parents and my little sister. The summers were always warm and filled with noise, much like tonight. I kind of miss it with Rhodes Island always moving around."

"I get it. I've been homesick many times in my combat years."

"Anything in this town reminds you of home?" asked Saria. "I figure with all the water and ports around, there would be some familiarity."

"No, it's not really the same," said Skadi, exhaling a long breath and talking quieter than usual.

"How so?"

"It would be hard to explain," said Skadi, but she opened her mouth again to speak. "It's just- something's just not the same here. When you've taken a long journey through the depths and break through the water's surface, I miss seeing the stars glimmer in the empty night skies without all of these skyscrapers around, and the comfort of the ever-rolling tide. I haven't even gone into the water here, at least not yet."

Saria looked over to Skadi and gave her a small nod of understanding, so Skadi took a shaky exhale and continued. "All that I once held dear now rest under that very water back home. There are many calamities to look out for there as well, but it has become a comfort to me. If there were ever a safe moment, I would love to show you my home one day."

Skadi turned back towards Saria, and they made eye contact. "Yeah... I hope we get to go someday, after all of this is over. I would like that."

They both slowly looked back to the high school, and Skadi leaned closer to Saria, making their shoulders touch. Both of their arms buzzed in unfamiliarity, but both of them were relaxed at the action, making the seat more comfortable. Skadi was deep in thought and wasn't really paying attention to the stakeout target as much as she should have.

It was the first time in a long time that Skadi had opened up to somebody. She had always been so paranoid of losing people she cared for, and although she didn't say it, hoped that Saria would be careful for her. She really enjoyed her company, one of the closest associations she held at Rhodes island, especially in the medical division. It was a weird feeling to really have trust in somebody again, a feeling that made her stomach flutter in an odd mix of anxiety and comfort.

Saria, although she didn't show it, put a lot of her trust in Skadi, much different from her first impressions at the missions. She had no idea how caring she really was, a feeling that now broke through both of their serious personas. Being a leader is usually a lonely but rewarding road. She had experienced the disconsolate climb of the corporate ladder back at Rhine labs and was starting over again in Rhodes island. This bond between them felt unfamiliar to her as well, although she never had anybody to lose in the first place, unlike Skadi.

They sat together for around two hours, both contemplating in comforting silence. They were both getting tired, as it was in the middle of the night, but they fought to stay awake and alert. Suddenly, the two had their attention caught when a large spotlight flicked on, shining in the football field of the school grounds, followed by a barely audible crossbow shot. Saria and Skadi quickly jumped down off of the AC unit, crawling towards the ledge of the roof. Skadi peeked over the edge to see Broca standing in the football field, the spotlight illuminating him and the warning arrow laying in the ground. Broca had his sanguine-stained hands up, surrendering to the light. The spotlight shut off, leaving the area back into the nighttime darkness.

"Do you know what they're doing?" asked Skadi, ducking back down under the roof guard.

"No idea… Let's keep watching."

They both waited for a few minutes before they saw the lights turn on behind the fieldhouse doors, two silhouettes walking out and into the darkness before one of them flicked on a LED lantern, revealing a pistol in their other hand. They slowly walked up to Broca, who was still in the same spot as before.

"That's Frostnova, definitely," said Skadi pointing at one of the figures with an ice blade floating behind. "She's standing in front of the one holding the lantern, though. I can't tell who it is."

"Me neither, and I don't really know why anybody would have a firearm…" said Skadi, still paying close attention to the field. The reunion pair walked up to Broca and had some indistinguishable conversation, leading to Frostnova shaking her head and signaling for the other one to holster their gun. Broca walked past the two, making them turn around and start walking back towards the door.

"Kal'tsit…" Skadi said, recognizing the light hair as she was now visible to them, her body illuminated by the lantern.

"I fucking knew it," said Saria, furious that her little theory was now confirmed, that Broca and Kal'tsit were both working with reunion. The three quickly walked back into the school, closing the door behind them and shutting all of the lights off again. After a few more minutes of intense silence, staring at the door, Saria spoke up.

"I think we got what we needed, let's get out of here before any more trouble stirs up."

"Good idea," said Skadi. They briskly walked back into the apartments and made their way to the stairs. Skadi rushed down the stairs but turned around when she realized that Saria was lagging behind.

"Are you alright?" asked Skadi, watching Saria gently shuffling down the stairs.

"Yeah, my foot's just hurting a little," she said, using the railing as her main source of balance. Skadi shook her head, walked over, and lifted Saria's arm over her shoulders.

C'mon, let's keep going." she said, placing her arm over Saria's shoulders as well, being her human crutch. They made their way down the stairs and snuck out to the car, careful to not alert anybody near the high school. They let go of the crutch walk and jumped into the car, started it up, and made sure that the headlights were not on.

"I think it's time we let everybody know what's happening," said Skadi with a sigh, leaning back in her chair. "Assuming they haven't found out already."

"Are you sure?" asked Saria, checking to see if she really wanted to.

"I'm pretty sure everything's going to hit the fan sooner than I thought; we need everybody we can get to help us."

"It's probably for the best," said Saria, starting up the car and switching the gear to reverse. Skadi took a shaky exhale as she looked out of the window at the fleeting reunion base, disappearing in the nighttime fog as the car rolled farther away.


	11. Chapter 11 (Respite)

Hello everybody, I apologize for the very long wait for this chapter. I just had a lot of writer's block, but I hope I can get everything back on track now. I have some more notes at the end of the chapter when you're done reading.

* * *

Skadi slowly drifted awake, surprised that the warm afternoon light illuminating the tiny office through the glass bricks hadn't woken her up earlier. She felt rested, but also embarrassed from sleeping late, even though she knew she had to stay up for the stakeout. She scrambled to put her usual uniform on and rushed out of the office, into the empty hallway. Skadi looked around at the open empty rooms before going to the conference room. If anybody was still at base, they would probably be here.

She pushed the door open slightly and peeked in, only to see Saria sitting down at the head of the table, staring down at some papers and idly swirling her coffee mug around.

"Good morning," said Saria, hurrying into the meeting room.

"Hey, Skadi. Did you sleep alright?" asked Saria, leaning forward in her chair. Her voice was a calming stop to Skadi's worries about being late.

"Yeah, yeah," Skadi responded, stretching her back slightly. "What time is it?"

"One forty-five."

"Oh… I'm sorry for sleeping so late, what did I miss?"

"We just had a little debriefing, don't worry about it. I informed them about everything that's been going on with the reunion, including Broca and Kal'tsit's involvement. Nothing that the two of us don't already know"

"This morning… Did you sleep at all?"

"No, I was too amped up from everything, and I couldn't get comfortable at the desk."

"Oh, I can take over for the afternoon, if you want to catch up on rest in the bed."

"No, no. It's fine." Saria said, holding up her mug of coffee. "I'll just finish my duties for the day and go to sleep, same as everybody else."

"Okay… Is there anything you want help with?"

"Yeah, actually. I have a small group of people a few blocks north, getting defense supplies at a hardware store. I haven't heard from them on the radio, could you go down there and check on them?"

"Defense supplies… so it's official? We're preparing a defense?"

"There have been situations with reunion like this in the past, so yes, it's the smartest thing to do moving forward, and everybody seems to be on board with it," said Saria, showing Skadi a rough blueprint of the building on the table. "It should be pretty easy to defend."

"Alright yeah, I can see it. It's no fortress, but with a little work, we can make this place really hard to attack," said Skadi. "Are you thinking about contacting Doctor for any help?"

"No… I'd rather not, with the entire Kal'tsit situation; Doctor's got enough on their shoulders already, wouldn't want any more troubles. I already thought of a little plan myself, I was thinking we could make a trap-type defense in the lobby."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. There's a big area for Reunion to get caught in, two floors of the high ground looking down, good sightlines, and only one way up."

"Two ways up."

"Hm?" asked Skadi.

"There's a small service staircase if you go past our room and to the right… The only outside entrance is in the courtyard, so I doubt they'll ever find it."

"Alright, we can probably put down a vanguard by the door; it won't need much defense."

"I agree, Scavenger would be good."

"Do you have any other plans in place?"

"Yeah," said Saria, rotating the blueprints around and pointing down at the various spots. "I think Schwarz, Firewatch, you, and I should be defending the first floor; Snipers get a clear shot, I would defend them, you can fend off the elevators and staircases, and we can all keep an eye on Exusiai."

"So you have thought this through."

"I take the safety of our operators very seriously."

"No, I wasn't trying to be mean… I was trying to say I appreciate the thought put into it."

"Oh… well, thank you," said Saria, blushing ever so slightly before turning back to a solemn expression. "It is my job after all."

"I know," responded Skadi, finally sitting down in a chair. "What else do you have in mind?"

Saria's face lit up slightly from her usual serious expression again as she gave a small grin and looked back down at the blueprints.

"Well, I was imagining that we could have our other guards down in the lobby, skirmishing with attackers and defending the elevator doors."

"So Hoshiguma, Siege, Indra, and Grani would be keeping the enemies at bay… smart."

"Yes, and finally, our casters will be on the second balcony, giving our ranged support from above."

"And that would be Gavial and Angelina, right?" asked Skadi.

"Correct."

Skadi leaned back in her chair, looking out of the open door at the large window panels in the lobby. "What are we going to do about the front of the building?"

"I've already got supply runs going throughout the city; we're gonna board up the big atrium windows and fortify the lobby with extra cover. I have that one team at the hardware store that I mentioned earlier, but there's no knowing if they found anything good."

"And you want me to check on them?"

"Yes… only if you're feeling up to it today."

"I'm on it," Skadi said.

"Be careful now, and please be on the lookout for any suspicious activity in the team as well. Everybody seemed paranoid when I broke the news this morning"

"I will," she responded, promptly walking out the door and into the hallway balcony, where she saw Hoshiguma and Gavial talking outside of the infirmary. They looked to be having small talk, with Gavial making too many hand motions as she rambled on about something Skadi couldn't hear. The two noticed Skadi walking down the hall as she got closer.

"Rough night, eh?" asked Gavial, leaning back against the wall, noticing Skadi's tired eyes in unison to her own.

"Yeah, I apologize again for the sudden wake-up."

"No, it's all good. I mean, hey, I guess it's my job, right?" Gavial laughed, sounding exhausted. A brief moment of silence fell upon the three as Skadi remained still.

"You guys need a word together?" asked Hoshiguma, leaning up from the wall.

"Sure, thank you Hoshiguma," said Saria. Hoshiguma gave a small nod to Skadi and a quick wave to Gavial before turning around and walking down the catwalk.

"I'm guessing you want to know about Exusiai?"

"How bad is it?" asked Skadi. Gavial broke eye contact and lost her usually bright face, switching back into that serious medical tone.

"Well, you know, I did everything I really can do for now. I've still got everything going as well as we can. She's been in a coma, so there's not really a way to know if there's, uh, any damage to the brain yet."

"Alright. I understand." quietly said Skadi, remaining calm and trying her hardest to not show her concern. Gavial gave a subtle grin and lightheartedly slapped her arm over her shoulder, jostling it a little.

"Hey, she'll be fine, we just gotta wait."

Skadi gave a small grin back. Gavial sure made it hard to stay in a somber mood when she was around.

"Well, I need to get going. Thank you for doing what you can," said Skadi, separating from Gavial's arm.

"Yup," said Gavial, giving a tiny wave as Skadi started to walk away. "Oh, hey, if you see Hoshi, tell her to come back!"

Saria walked off down the hallway and ran into Hoshiguma, so she delivered Gavial's message before continuing on down the elevator and out of the front door. She began to wander north and began to notice skid marks across the ground, mashing down the litter and weaving through parked cars and other debris. She wandered this trail for about twenty minutes arriving at the empty road that the others were standing at.

Siege and Angelina were sitting on the hood of the car, making small talk and idly twirling weapons in their hands. Angelina noticed Skadi walking up and jumped off of the old car to greet her.

"Hey, hey Skadi!" Angelina and Skadi shared their greetings before Siege showed up, loosely holding a radio in her hand.

"Hey, Skadi. Did you hear anything from our radio back at base?"

"No. Saria sent me here to check on you."

"I told you something was wrong with it!" Angelina said, looking up at the radio.

"What went wrong?" Skadi asked.

"It keeps cutting out whenever we get far from the base… Firewatch is the only person this far that can still talk." Siege said, lazily clicking the talk button on her pager multiple times to no avail.

"What were you trying to call about?"

"We needed some backup to enter here; Schwarz can get you up to speed, she's over there by the far end of the hardware store. Angelina and I will get our gear together and meet you over there."

Skadi nodded and walked down the short distance to see Schwarz kneeling in front of a reinforced fence, built from the hardware store's gardening area, staring at a piece of the wall. She noticed Skadi and quickly stood up.

"Hello Skadi," said Schwarz, quickly breaking eye contact again and turning back towards the lumber and iron fence. Skadi stood next to her as she pointed forward at a marking. "See that, on the wall?"

"The graffiti?"

"Yeah, it's the same one we've been seeing throughout the city."

On the plywood was a vibrant orange paint, looking bright enough in contrast to the paint behind it, so it was likely sprayed on recently. It looked to be that reunion graffiti that everybody kept seeing throughout the city. This one looked pretty much the same as the others on the surface, a large X with different letters and numbers sprayed in the same paint color in each of the quadrants; 21FEB 0900 painted on the top, S/W/O in bold letters to the right, 6-8 at the bottom, and a large "R" on the left quadrant. Schwarz pointed again at the graffiti, Skadi could now see that she was pointing to the 6-8 specifically.

"I've only noticed a zero at the beginning, down in the bottom quadrant. I don't think I ever saw anything on the right, either," said Schwarz.

"What do you think the bottom part means?"

"I don't know, honestly. Considering it's usually been a zero, It's probably safe to assume it won't be abandoned. Things could have changed though, looks like it was searched 6 months ago, if the top part signifies the date."

"Do you have a plan?"

"Seige did; The front and utility doors are all heavily barricaded, so she wanted me to scout out from the top of the gardening area cage while she slipped over the plywood and through the bars."

"Why haven't you already?"

"Siege wasn't comfortable leaving Angelina out here alone, but I think she'll be fine with it now that you're here."

"Let's get this done, then," said Skadi. The two walked the short distance to meet up with the others, talked about the new plan with Siege, and got themselves ready.

"First, we need Schwarz to get a sightline. You two, help me lift her up." Siege commanded, kneeling down in front of the orange X. Skadi got into position as Angelina held up her staff, ready to use her powers.

"Ready?" Siege asked.

Schwarz wasted no time running forward and jumping into Skadi's and Siege's palms, getting launched up as they pushed up, Skadi being careful to not reopen her hand wound. Schwarz flung up, slamming into the black metal bars near the top, the metal rattling in tension as she climbed upwards and over onto the roof. She readied her crossbow and began to look around from the roof as Siege got ready to jump up as well.

"Wait!" loudly whispered Schwarz, keeping her balance on two separate bars. She looked to be standing on an old skylight frame.

"Schwarz? What's wrong?" asked Siege, quickly walking back towards the wall to get a view of what's happening.

"Back up from the wall!" she called out again, her voice straining, trying not to yell.

"Do you need help getting down?" called out Angelina, worriedly looking up at her through the bars above the plywood.

"Siege, get away from the walls!" Schwarz yelled out. Her legs and the bars underneath began to rattle again, this time making a loud creaking noise as Schwarz tried to turn back around towards the group. Any sense of stealth was now gone due to the yelling and noise. The creaking and rattling got much louder as the skylight fixture snapped, sending Schwarz tumbling down, landing out of sight behind the plywood barricades with an audible thump, followed by what sounded like a splash.

"SCHWARZ!?" screamed Angelina, quickly trying to jump up over the tall plywood wall to see and failing.

"Fuck!" Siege quickly shouted, looking around again at the wall. She quickly pulled out her hammer and swung at a piece of the barricade, instantly breaking open a small hole through it. "Skadi, help me out here!"

Skadi quickly unsheathed her sword and got ready to swing at the wall. Suddenly, she lost her train of thought when she heard crossbow shots closeby, giving her a reminder of the finger injury that she was supposed to be careful about. Siege continued to hit the wall with her hammer, but was having trouble breaking through the metal bars. The last crossbow shot rattled out from inside the greenhouse.

"Skadi! Now!" Siege yelled, desperate to break through. Skadi snapped out of it and elegantly swung her sword, breaking a path through the bars and into the greenhouse. Siege and Skadi rushed in, Angelina staying in the doorway when she saw the interior of the place. The floor was ankle-deep in murky, green-tinted water, getting deeper towards the middle of the room. It was horrendously humid in the garden and reeked of mustiness. Throughout the room, originum slugs lay dead on the ground, Schwarz's arrows sticking out of their heads, none of them left alive. The group's eyes found Schwarz, laying down in the water, crossbow held forward and unloaded.

"Schwarz! Are you okay?" asked Angelina, sloshing through the water over to her. Schwarz quickly sat up as Angelina's splashes almost got the water in her face.

"I'm fine… I just jammed my knee in the fall, that's all," said Schwarz, disorientedly getting her thoughts back together. She leaned forward and placed her hand on the ground as she got ready to stand. Siege quickly walked over and held out a helping hand. "Siege, you need to leave, now." coldly commanded Schwarz, suddenly breaking eye contact with her.

"What?" asked Siege, still holding out the hand. Schwarz looked over and gestured to the corner of the greenhouse, on the wall connected to the hardware store. The three of them looked over to see a large cluster of originum, almost as tall as them. There were 8 names carved into the wall above the crystal chunk.

"Oh, god… Do you think it's…" Angelina spoke, but trailed off.

"It's probably a gravesite," Skadi stated, providing no comfort. "This may only be the beginning of these. Be careful around the originate, everyone."

"Do you guys see this a lot on missions?" Angelina asked, fiddling around with her dolphin necklace and shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"It's best to not pay attention to it, Angelina."

"Okay… you guys can't get infected, right?" asked Angelina. Skadi shook her head.

"Siege, you can get infected, you need to get out of here." Schwarz coldly stated, standing up on her own. "Just get the car started, we won't be long. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"Are you sure you're alright? You don't need me in there?" asked Siege, still holding out her hammer.

"We have already seen originum clusters and slugs around; best not to risk infection."

"Okay, yeah. Stay on your guard, everyone," said Siege, looking at the three and nodding in affirmation. She walked out of the blasted hole in the fence and out to the car, sitting on top of the hood and keeping a lookout.

"Do, uh, do you think the supplies are still salvageable?" asked Angelina, gently walking along the shallow water to get a better view out of the greenhouse and into the hardware store. She was being careful to not soak her shoes again.

"Only one way to know," said Schwarz, wringing out her wet hair and beginning to subtly hobble towards the doorway. Skadi and Angelina followed close by.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Angelina.

"I'm fine," Schwarz stated, still facing forward. "Let's just hurry this up."

They all sloshed through the water, walked up a small ramp, and through a glass revolving door to the hardware store. The interior, in comparison to the musty garden, was surprisingly nice. The store shelves seemed to remain organized, and the floors were not scattered with litter, like much of the other places. "Don't be lax, now. This place may not be empty." quietly stated Schwarz, loading an arrow in her crossbow.

"Got it," Skadi said. Angelina quietly pulled out a panel cart from the corral to carry supplies, but still had her staff ready. They began to sweep the aisles, weary of the organized interior. Through the aisles they found exactly what they were looking for; plywood, lumber, screws, and nails, all in fairly decent shape. Just to be safe, they checked the rest of the store for any enemies, to which they found none. They eventually ended up in the outdoor furniture section at the far corner of the store, certain they completely scouted out the interior.

"Hey, guys! Look!" Angelina exclaimed to the other two who nearly walked past. Buried within the arrangements of lawn chairs and fountains were a half dozen cots, all neatly lined up and cleanly made, but covered in a thin layer of dust. Around the beds were multiple flat crates, labeled with the penguin logistics logo; the same ones that were underneath the hotel stage. Schwarz held up her crossbow and gently pushed one of the boxes with her foot, moving it out of the way with ease. She walked up to another pile and gently pushed over a few more empty boxes, keeping one hand on the crossbow trigger.

"Be careful, everyone," Skadi stated again, remembering the grenade trapdoor from the Hilton. "Keep an eye out for traps."

"Traps?" Angelina asked.

"Just stay back, we have this covered," Schwarz said, sifting through more empty boxes, now joined by Skadi. Angelina examined one of the discarded boxes closely, then began to glance around at the entire encampment. She juggled some ideas in her head, anxious to say any of them.

"Wait, guys?" Angelina asked, working up the courage to speak her mind. Skadi glanced at her, waiting for her to continue. "Didn't Siege say something about cots and boxes in the mall?"

"Are you talking about dinner last night?" asked Skadi, still rummaging through the large amount of Penguin labeled boxes.

"Yeah! Remember how Indra was talking about finding nothing, but Siege said she found beds and stuff hidden away?" Angelina asked, suddenly retracing the memories of last night's conversation. "Don't you remember, guys?"

"Uh-huh. Yeah." Schwarz mumbled. "We know reunion is spread out through the city."

"Yeah, but… Don't you think it's a little weird that Siege was the only one who knew about the beds?"

"Indra could have missed them, it's an easy mistake."

"We can't tell for sure that these are the same supplies Siege saw in the shopping center!"

"Could we check with her?"

"I don't want her walking through that originum-ridden greenhouse to get in. She is at a high risk for infection."

"How do you even know that?"

Schwarz was kind of taken back by that statement, stopping her box searching and looking over her shoulder at Angelina. "I took a look at all of the Rhodes Island files… Knowing who you're working with is more important than you may think, helps you trust your team, and not talk about them behind their back," she said, a tinge of spite undertoning her speech.

"Okay, hey… sorry. I'm just really new to all this..."

"Wait." Skadi suddenly interrupted, lightly pushing a box that didn't budge. "Found something; do either of you have something to pry this open with?"

The two both stopped their conversation and opened their duffel bags. Angelina fished out a tiny pry bar and handed it over to Skadi, who placed the crate down on the ground and pulled the box open, revealing thick layers of insulating foam. She dug through the foam dividers, Schwarz and Angelina looking over her shoulder, and pulled out one of the objects.

"Is that a mine?" asked Angelina, quietly stepping back.

"Yeah, it's a Claymore. Looks like a type 66." Schwarz said, gently picking up one of the mines from the case with utmost care. "Skadi, do you see the detonators anywhere?"

"No, I don't," Skadi said, carefully placing the mine back into the crate and reaching for Schwarz's. "There's no doubt these are modified reunion claymores; no military can have persistent mines anymore."

"What does that mean?" asked Angelina.

"It gets activated whenever somebody walks in front of it; it has a little laser that indicates it when it's activated," Schwarz said, passing the claymore to Skadi and standing up from her kneel. "Do you think we should use these, Skadi?"

Skadi contemplated as she slowly placed the lid back onto the box. "I know Saria isn't going to want to use them, but we may need them."

"Alright, we can pick them up last, let's get the other supplies back to base before we get in any more trouble with the reunion."

* * *

Little end note here, sorry for the long wait for a chapter that's mostly just character development, things will start picking up very soon in more ways than one. I already have half of chapter 12 written, but I'm not sure how soon it will be out since I have to wrap up all of my e-learning and exams.  
Thank you to all of the readers who are still reading!


	12. Chapter 12 (Interbellum)

"Is that the last of it?" asked Siege, throwing a long plank of wood down in the lobby, making the crack echo off of the glass walls and linoleum floors. Piles of plywood and planks littered the left wall, ready to be used for building soon.

"We just have the claymore box left," said Schwarz, smacking the dust off of her hands. She looked out of the windows to see Skadi already picking the box up out of the Volvo trunk, illuminated by the setting sun.

"Man, I am going straight to sleep when dinner is over. I'm exhausted." Siege said, sitting down on top of the dusty reception desk, dangling her legs off the edge. Schwarz turned around to see her when she heard an annoying crinkle from behind her.

"Are we needed anywhere else?" asked Schwarz.

"Nope," Siege said, taking her lollipop out of her mouth to speak. "Am I annoying you with this?" She asked, holding up her lollipop.

Schwarz continued to idly pace around. "No. Just wanted to make sure our duty is done."

"We got all the supplies we need, Schwarz. Sit down for a bit."

"I'm fine."

"You've been running supplies back and forth all day with an injured knee. Just sit down for a bit, dinner will be soon."

Schwarz quietly sighed and sat down on the desk, next to Siege. They both sat still in near silence, only hearing the soft noises of Skadi and Angelina working, and Siege's lollipop eating. The latter part was a little annoying to Schwarz, but overall it was a nice break from the labor of moving supplies around themselves. Angelina and Skadi carried in the explosives box and gently placed it down near the back wall. Skadi got the dust off of her hands as she walked up to the desk.

"That's the final trip, right?" asked Skadi. Angelina was regaining her breath behind her.

"Yep," Siege said, hopping off of the desk and picking up her hammer. "Dinner should be out by now, let's go."

They all used the elevator and made their way to the conference room. Skadi glanced at the clock, noticing that they were a little late, but knowing that Saria would be understanding. As they walked up to the doors, they heard some yelling between the group but was hushed when Siege opened the door.

"Hello everybody." Siege said, walking to the table. The group quietly shared their greetings, but an odd feeling of tensity was present in that room. Nonetheless, the four found their seats at the table

"Hello Skadi," Saria said when Skadi got close, straightening up her posture slightly.

"Hi Saria," Skadi said, sitting down in the empty seat next to her. There was already a lemon tuna MRE on the table for her. Skadi and Saria shared a silent glance of appreciation.

"Now that everybody's here, we can start talking," Indra said, ripping open her pack of food.

"Indra," Saria said in a warning tone.

"What? We can't just ignore what happened yesterday, with people switching sides and all. So, Scavenger, is there something you want to say?"

"Please. Back off." Scavenger said, hunching over a little in her chair.

"You shouldn't be trying to make commands."

"Do you even have any evidence?"

"It just doesn't add up, Scavenger."

"At least Siege can actually find evidence on a mission."

"Well, at least I wasn't on a mission with a dude that betrayed us a few hours later. No red flags? No warnings? Thanks Scav!"

"Hey!" Scavenger said, louder than her usual voice. "I didn't know he was going to do that!"

"You two need to calm down." Saria loudly stated, followed by a long, tense silence. The sound of the room was filled with the sound of eating and the buzz of the construction light in the corner, which annoyed the hell out of Gavial.

"Okay everybody, I got an idea to break the tension!" Gavial stated to the table, placing down her eating utensils.

"...and?" asked Firewatch.

"...and the idea is a game!" Gavial said, pulling out a deck of cards. "Everybody remembers the rules from a couple of nights ago?"

The group glanced around at each other for a moment until Grani spoke up. "Yeah... it was like, high card gets to ask, um, I think jokers wer-"

"Alright, whatever. New rules, the high card gets to ask, the low card gets to answer! Everybody ready?" Gavial asked, met with nods from the rest of the team. Saria stood up and began to pick up everybody's trays.

"Count me in, I'll just be cleaning up."

"Same here" Skadi said, standing up to help out Saria. Gavial passed out a small stack of cards to everybody, even leaving a few cards at the empty seats for the two. Everybody flipped their cards and held them up to each other. Schwarz had the low card being held up.

"Hm, okay, this should be good," Indra said, holding up a high card between her fingers. "Marry-Fuck-Kill... Texas, Cliffheart, or… Doctor."

"Really?"

"Yes, really ," Indra said, badly imitating her voice, trying to lighten the mood.

"C'mon, you can't chicken out on the first question!" said Grani, trying to learn a bit more about the team, seeing as the last game ended pretty quickly.

"Fine. I would marry… Texas."

"Texas?" asked Gavial, sounding shocked. "I wasn't really expecting that!"

"There's only three options," Hoshiguma said.

"I know, you dingus! I just don't see a whole lot in common."

"They have some things in common." Scavenger said. "I could see it working."

"Like what?"

"Oh, oh, I got it!" Indra said, leaning forward in her chair and placing her elbows on top. " Similar past trauma. Think about it! They-"

"Let up a little, would you?" asked Siege, defending Schwarz from having any more time in the spotlight than she needed. "C'mon, it's a card game."

"Alright, whatever. You know i'm right though!"

"Moving on," Schwarz said "I would, you know…"

" Fuck ?" Indra taunted. She got smacked in the back of the head by Siege, almost instinctively "Ow, hey! What was that for?" Siege only responded with a little smile and a head shake.

"Doctor." Schwarz continued, ignoring Indra's remarks.

"You're choosing to F Doctor?" asked Grani. "We don't even know what they look like, right?"

"I've never seen Doctor without that weird hood on before, so probably not." Hoshiguma said.

"I haven't before, either," Gavial stated. "Now that you got me thinking about it, do you think they take the mask off when it's time to..."

"Gavial," Saria said over her shoulder from the washbasin, in a tone almost like a parent warning their kid to not steal something.

"What? It's a perfectly valid question! Somebody has got to have seen the face at some point!"

"Kal'tsit probably has," Firewatch said.

"Damn, I guess we'll really never know then!" Gavial laughed. "Alright so, you'd be marrying Texas, fucking Doctor, which means you're killing…"

"Cliffheart!" Grani yelled out. "Wow, why Cliffheart?"

"I don't know," Schwarz responded. "She was just last on my list."

"It's okay Schwarz. We all know, deep down in our hearts, it's solely because of that super ugly hat that we all hate." Grani beamed, talking about Cliffheart sarcastically.

"Hey, the hat isn't that bad!" Angelina proclaimed.

"Oh yes it is . Are you sure you've seen it?" Gavial joked. "Whatever, moving on, this is round two!" Everybody flipped their cards again.

"Who has the high card?" said Angelina, holding up a 2 of spades. The group looked around at each other.

"Scavenger, what's your question?" asked Hoshiguma, noticing that she wasn't speaking up.

"Hmm... Are you new to military work? 'Cause I don't really think I've seen you much on missions."

"Oh, uh, no. I used to do a lot of delivering and stuff back in Siracusa, and eventually the Ark. I haven't done any type of combat yet if that's what you're asking!"

"Are you interested in combat?"

"I'm not really sure, I'm still pretty new to Rhodes island, and I know that I may not be the best fit... I know the actual battlefield is an ugly place, but I want to give it all that I've got!" Angelina excitedly stated, smiling a little.

"Don't doubt yourself, Angelina," said Hoshiguma. "I wouldn't have even known you were a recruit if you never brought it up."

"Oh… well, thank you."

"Next round!" Gavial quickly called out, eager to finish the game up as many were on the last portions of their meal. "I got a high card!"

Hoshiguma held up the lowest card at the table. "Alright Gavial, do your worst."

"Okay, hmm…" Gavial said. "Oh!, favorite MRE meal, go!"

"Easy, It's gotta be menu 10."

"Chili and Macaroni! Hell yeah!" Gavial said, standing up a little in her chair in excitement. It was the meal she was already eating. Gavial quickly dug through the meal pack. "...and just for that, you got yourself the greatest dessert of all time. The coup de gr â ce. The ' insert other french phrase here' ."

"The Lemon pound cake?"

"Yeah I'm talking 'bout the lemon pound cake! Catch!" Gavial said, throwing the poundcake package quickly at Hoshiguma, who caught it flawlessly with one hand.

"Thank you."

"Yeah yeah, you're welcome. Next round!" Gavial called out, flipping her card over, and looking at everybody else. "Yo, Skadi!"

"Hm?" Skadi responded from the dishwashing station.

"You got the low card, c' mere and answer!"

Skadi finished drying the fork in her hands, placed her towel down next to Saria, and walked over to the table. She was standing with her arms crossed before speaking. "Who is asking the question?"

"Over here," Grani said, nodding her head towards Angelina and nudging her shoulder. "Go ahead."

"Hm… do you currently have a crush on anyone?" asked Angelina.

Skadi took a few seconds to answer. She shrugged her shoulders and said: "I haven't really thought about being in a relationship for a long time." She made sure that she avoided giving a direct answer.

"Damn, that's kind of sad!" Indra shouted out, giving a half laugh only to be met with absolute silence from the table. She got an especially dirty look from Saria, across the room.

After a few more seconds of silence that felt like hours, Gavial spoke up. "Welp, that seems like a good place to call it for the night." She stood up from her chair and quickly grabbed her leftover box.

"Wait, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…" Angelina said, but stopped when she noticed nobody was paying attention to her. She believed that she messed up the game again, when it wasn't her fault this time. The rest of the table began to shuffle around and started cleaning up their meal messes.

"We can start building our defense and talking about our plan tomorrow morning." Saria loudly stated, attempting to speak over the commotion. Firewatch walked behind Saria and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey Saria, I have first watch tonight, right?"

"Correct."

"What time do I switch out?"

"You'll have to wake Grani up around eleven… You have a watch on you, right?"

"Yep."

"...And you're still fine with being the first lookout?"

"Yeah everything is good, I like patrol. Make sure you get enough sleep tonight, Saria."

"I will. Goodnight, Firewatch." Saria said as Firewatch walked out to the elevator and gave a small farewell wave.

Saria hadn't really paid attention to her own tiredness, she must have been amped up on caffeine. Nevertheless, she wrapped up the dinner conversations and headed to the tiny office. Skadi shoved open the door and got the little chair stuck in the way, jamming the only entrance. She opened and slammed the doors a few more times before making enough room to pick up the chair through the door crack and throwing it out of the way.

The two of them both laid down in their sleeping spots, Saria taking the bed despite her attempts to get Skadi to take another night there instead of her, using the excuse that she "could probably go to sleep anywhere right now". Skadi's calfs dangled off of the crudely cushioned desk, making a small banging noise when her heels touched the cold metal. They both stared up at the cheap grid ceiling, watching in silence, too amped up on anxiety to clear their heads and get some rest. The clock over the file cabinet was especially distracting tonight, each tick making them grow more restless, a cold reminder of the impending strike. They waited and waited, tossing and turning as much as they could on their little spaces until Skadi broke the overly long silence.

"Can't sleep?" asked Skadi, already knowing the answer.

"No, I can't." groaned Saria, sitting up in the mattress, resting her back against the couch part of the pullout. She glanced at the clock, but couldn't see it in the dark. "I should be tired, but I'm just… I can't sleep. What time is it?"

"11:28," Skadi stated, leaning back down onto the cushions with a long exhale. "Are you still thinking about the raid?"

"...Yes."

Skadi sat up and groaned, stretching as she crossed her legs.

"It's probably best to clear our minds about it... anything you want to say?" asked Skadi. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."

Saria leaned her head against the glass brick wall, folding in her knees and placing her crossed arms on top of them. She sat in silence for a little while before speaking.

"I'm just worried, Skadi," said Saria. Skadi turned her head to the side, looking at Saria through her arms. Saria continued: "We've got a lot of people depending on us, and I don't know if they can even count on us."

"I know what you mean," said Skadi, her voice trailing off ever so slightly at the last word. "A lot has gone bad so far, but we can't always control it."

"I know…" Saria mumbled. "I just can't stop thinking about Jessica, Exusiai,-"

"We weren't a part of Exusiai's injury, don't blame yourself on that, too," Skadi said, tensing up her shoulders, switching from an empathetic to an assertive tone. "Jessica's fate was my fault… I don't want you thinking it was because of you."

"It was. We talked about this before."

"We did, but it's not-"

"Stop sugarcoating it. We know there were a lot of things at fault there."

"...Including us."

Saria nodded her head around in a moment of silence before continuing. "Yeah, us. I can't have you walking around thinking that weight is on your shoulders."

"Me neither," Skadi said, tapping the back of her head on the desktop. They both entered a bout of silence, trying to fall asleep again for a few minutes. Skadi opened up the questions again. "Do you still think about Jessica?"

"...Yes." Saria said, followed by another long pause. "I can't get those eyes out of my head… just, they looked so weird and out of place, the left pupil being weirdly big, blood covering the rest. I can't get it out of my mind... Seeing Exusiai reminded me of it, I think."

Skadi was mildly shocked at the statement, one of the first times she had shared any of the negative thoughts she held onto so often.

"Is, uh, is that why you feel scared for the rest of the team?" asked Skadi. Saria had to take a second to really think about it.

"I think so… yeah. I- I wish I could, just, I don't know…"

"Whatever trouble we're in, I know we'll get out of it. We'll get our friends out of it." Skadi assured. "...People on the squad look up to us, and I know it's hard, but we can't keep these worries bottled up. That weight on your shoulders gets heavier when you have people who need you. Don't push me away if things get crazy"

Saria was a little shocked at this statement, noticing how rare her comforting language was. She avoided responding to the personal remark towards her and focused on how she knew.

"I take it you've felt this way before, then," Saria said.

"...Yes, back when I wasn't running with the military."

"Back when you were in Æ gir?"

"Yes. I would love to have fond memories of my friends and companions there, but…" Skadi drifted off, pausing in thought. Saria didn't try to push for extra closure out of respect, noticing that she faced towards the ceiling with a set of worried eyes.

Saria remained upright, and started staring blankly across the room, chest still heavy with anxiety, but much less than before. She watched Skadi, noticing that she had her eyes open, staring at the ceiling, looking as if she had given up the battle for sleep, and was simply in her anxious thoughts as well, or perhaps her hurtful memories of a past long ago.

"Skadi?"

"Yes?" she responded, rolling her head sideways on the desk.

"Can you…" Saria paused, "Do you want to come over here, for the night?"

"...On the bed?"

"Yeah," said Saria, her voice rasped from unintentional worry. Skadi quickly but quietly got up from the desk and shuffled over to the bedside without uttering a word. Saria slid over to the side as Skadi lowered herself down, both of them having to turn sideways towards the door to make room on the tiny mattress. Skadi made sure to leave as much space as she could for Saria, while she made sure to tuck away her tail to not bother Skadi. They were close enough to feel each other's body heat, even close enough that Saria could feel the tension release from Skadi's shoulders over the little mattress area, even though they weren't touching. Although it was awkward at first, they got more and more comfortable next to each other as the night grew on and the clock ticked forward. It was all nice and homey before the radio on the desk in front of them loudly turned on.

"Hey! Anybody awake right now?" urgently asked Grani from the radio. Skadi quickly scrambled to grab the radio and turn the volume down, attempting to prevent Saria from waking up. She looked behind her to see Saria sleeping like a rock, her mouth slightly open and her hair messily pushed off the side of the bed and away from her neck, small silver strands loosely tangled in the dragon horns. Skadi dazed off a little while watching before the pager voice startled her again. "Helloooooo? I'm being serious, this is-"

"I'm here, what's going on?" Skadi quickly whispered, turning away from Saria.

"Skadi? Thank god." Grani said, clicking off her microphone.

"Tsk. It's one in the morning. What are you calling for?"

"I got watch duty, remember? We got a little situation outside; I see a single headlight moving through the streets, probably not a problem. Could you go down to the lobby real quick and guard for a bit, just in case?"

"By your command," Skadi said, quickly grabbing her battle clothes and quietly rushing to put them on over her pajamas. "Is that headlight all you see?"

"Yeah, I don't see anything else right now, but it is pretty dark out here. It's probably some dumbass reunion guy going for a motorcycle joyride or something. Whoever's driving is going crazy, though!"

"What do you mean?" Skadi asked, grabbing her sword and quietly closing the door behind her.

"-at? Can you repeat-?" Grani asked, her voice almost indistinguishable in static.

"I can't hear you." Skadi calmly said as Grani tried responding, only to have her voice drowned out by static again. Skadi worriedly looked out of the atrium windows to see the headlight get close very fast. Skadi was still standing on the balcony when she heard the wheels screech across the dry pavement. "Grani, are you still there?" Skadi asked, quickly walking to the maintenance staircase for the sake of speed.

"-ill can't hea- ou-" Grani said, her voice barely indistinguishable in the static. "-t, I'm com-g dow-"

"I can't hear you, Grani," Skadi spoke again to the radio, quickly running into the lobby. She was only met with heavy interference, completely unable to hear the voice. She was about to press the walkie-talkie's button again before she heard a loud crack near the front door. She heard another as she began to walk up, and a loud crash finalized the banging as she stood in sight of the window, sword drawn. A figure dressed in white and green sprinted through the shards, holding a pistol backward from the barrel. She quickly slid to a stop when she realized she was in the sights of Skadi, dropped her pistol, and put her hands up.

"Kal'tsit?" Skadi asked, letting her sword drop ever so slightly.

"We don't have much time to talk, Reunion is coming in, fast. You need to get everybody ready, and fast!" Kal'tsit quickly stated, trying to move past Skadi. Skadi stiffened the grip on her sword and moved the blade closer to Kal'tsit, blocking her path. Another figure, dressed in black and red shuffled her way through the broken glass as well.

"Who is she?" Asked Skadi, glancing at the red-horned girl with a hand behind her back, ready to grab the rifle dangling from her shoulder strap.

"That's W, she's working with us now! We need to get moving, Skadi!"

"You know we can't trust you, Kal'tsit."

"Reunion's trying to take who they can and kill the rest! This is going to get ugly, Skadi!" She yelled out, completely contrasting the cold silent personality they grew to know at home. "You need to get everybody ready, NOW!"

Grani suddenly pushed open the second-floor door and ran to the glass-protected balcony, out of breath from running down from the rooftop. "Skadi?!" Grani yelled out, unable to see her past the elevator shaft. "Shit, I don't think the motorcycle guys are alone! I'm seeing more headlights, a-a lot of them!" Skadi became more serious than ever, looking back at the two standing in front of her and locking eyes with Kal'tsit.

"Give me your guns. Now." Skadi coldly stated, holding out an open hand. "Take it as a sign of good faith."

"Wh-what the fuck?! We need to get moving as-" W tried to negotiate, but was interrupted.

"Why must I waste my time on you two? Guns. NOW." Skadi stated, her tone making it loud and clear that she wasn't fucking around. Kal'tsit quickly picked up her discarded pistol and handed it off to Skadi, looking for a response. "Go," Skadi said, not even making eye contact. Kal'tsit ran past quickly while W walked up and held out her two gun slings, eyebrows furrowed. Skadi snatched the weapons from W and closely followed her as she rushed to the stairs.

Notes:

Okay, we're finally starting to get to some action! In your opinion, do you think I included too much filler/character development up to this point, or do you think it was a good amount? All feedback is greatly appreciated as always!


	13. Chapter 13 (Bloodshed)

Skadi, W, and Kal'tsit sprinted up the maintenance stairs up to the second floor, shoving open the doors to see Grani facing the windows. She quickly turned around and reached for her pike when she saw Kal'tsit and W standing in front.

"Skadi, what the hell is going on?" Grani asked, now holding the handle of the spear.

"We don't have much time, These two say we need to get everybody ready for an attack."

"Wha-? I-"

"Now, Grani."

"How much time?" Grani asked, holstering her weapon and beginning to hustle towards the dorms.

"We only got a couple of minutes at most!" W loudly said, obviously trying to rush.

"Oh shit!" Grani said, turning around and running to the doors. She began to pound on the doors and wake everybody up.

Skadi quickly turned to the other two. "If you two are being honest, I need you to round up everybody on the balcony when they wake up and get geared. Got it?"

"Fine," W said, quickly running to Grani.

"Where is Exusiai?" Kal'tsit asked. "I heard she's in serious condition."

"She's safe, not the time to be asking questions." Saria coldly stated.

"I needed-" Kal'tsit tried to say, but was stopped when Grani ran up to the two and started talking.

"Okay, everybody's waking up, I'm going to get some last-second barricades built, okay?"

"Go. Hurry." Skadi said.

"No friendly fire during the fight this time, yeah?" Grani chuckled, running off to the elevator knowing that Skadi wasn't going to laugh. Skadi shook her head and quickly nodded goodbye to Kal'tsit, running away towards her dorm. She kicked open the door and ran inside, throwing W's guns down on top of the desk.

"Saria! I need you awake!" Skadi shouted, shaking her shoulders against the mattress. She hated to have to wake Saria up like this, especially since she hasn't slept in two days, but there was no time to waste.

"I- mm. Wh- huh?" Saria asked, rolling over onto her side with her eyes closed and blindly swiping at the air, accidentally grabbing Skadi's leg. She fully opened her eyes and pulled her hand away. "Wh- What's happening?"

"Reunion is on their way for an attack, I need you to get ready!"

Saria took a moment to gain her bearings. "This soon? What?"

"We got word that they're coming in for a blitz. We need to get moving, now!" Skadi shouted, breaking her calm demeanor, desperate to get Saria prepared. Skadi lifted her up by the shoulders and made her stand, helping to wear off the grogginess.

"Oh, uh- Okay! Can you run and grab my shield?" Saria requested. Skadi wasted no time running out of the dorm and into the conference hall, picking up the cracked shield, and noticing the cold pot of coffee on the machine. Skadi quickly grabbed the pot off of the machine and sprinted back to the tiny dorm. Saria was putting on her battle dress, rushing to get the shoulders completed.

"I need you to zip up my back really quick," stated Saria, turning away and pointing to the zipper running up her spine. Skadi quickly but gently closed the back of the dress as Saria held her arms up and adjusted the sleeves.

"Here, drink this." Skadi insisted, holding up the glass coffee pot. Saria snatched the pot from her hands and chugged the rest of the cold drink. "Is that everything?" Skadi rushed to ask as she finished, her nerves finally starting to fully set in.

"Shield, sword, clothes, radios… I think we're good. Thank you for the coffee."

"No problem… please stay safe out there."

"I will, you stay safe too" Saria assured as the two walked back onto the walkway, where the rest of the group gathered in a circle. Everybody looked to be groggy but alert, the situation not really processing in their head. One thing stayed certain, however, and it was that everybody was giving a weird look to W and Kal'tsit, who stared right back at them.

"The fuck are they doing here?" asked Indra, gesturing to the two.

"They said they're here to help us," Skadi said. "Kal'tsit told me there's an incoming attack from Reunion."

"What? That- Are you sure?"

"Not the time for explanations, Indra." Kal'tsit said, eager to speak. "There's at least three vans, all carrying units, only a minute or two away from here. They were on a mission to capture the infected… I couldn't find out what they were planning for the non-infected operators."

"Couldn't find out!? What do you-"

"She couldn't find out much, okay!? Stop interrupting!" W shouted at Indra. Indra stared back at her in a fuming rage but was cut off before she could speak again by Saria.

"Nevertheless, we need to over the plan before they arrive; We need Schwarz and Firewatch to stay with us for overwatch," Saria commanded, putting her hand on Skadi's shoulder. "Casters go to the third floor for support, and all guards down in the lobby, Scavenger defending the staircase entrance. Am I clear?"

She was met with head nods from the team, and everybody quickly started walking to the staircase. Gavial stopped by where the snipers and defenders were at.

"I locked the infirmary door from the outside, I need all of you to keep an eye on Exusiai for me, alright?" Gavial asked, her voice losing a bit of its tone as she said the final word. The four nodded in approval. "Did you guys see Grani anywhere during the meeting?"

"No," Saria said, only now noticing.

"I'm down here!" Grani shouted, out of breath, overhearing them from down in the lobby. She was rushing to barricade the front windows with the plywood from earlier. There was such a large area to cover, but she still stacked as much material as she could get her hands on.

"Grani, get into position!"

"It's all good, we got a little more defense now!" Shouted Grani, obviously already exhausted. She turned up to the group and gave a thumbs up with an unsteady hand. Saria opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the loud sound of screeching tires and a quickly growing loudness of a roaring engine. It was swiftly followed by a van smashing through the front barricades. Everybody flinched as Grani slammed against the front bull bars of the vehicle and smashed her head into the hood of the car before being thrown back across the floor, leaving a trail of red contrasting against the linoleum.

"GRANI!"

"Holy shit!"

"Oh, fuck!"

Everybody panicked, but there was no time to fully react before a loud bang rattled through the air, shutting off all of the lights and enveloping the operators in near-complete darkness. Everybody stood in a tense shock, but was brought back to reality as Schwarz started blindly shooting at the van with her crossbow, killing the driver with a bolt through the windshield. They all started to ease back into action as another vehicle screeched to a halt outside on the street. Firewatch may have been the most phased, since she was still standing on the balcony with her crossbow down, simply staring at the last spot she saw Grani before the lights went out. A third vehicle abruptly stopped, but nobody could see where it was.

"Shit, Grani?! Can you hear us?" Siege shouted out. Her sneakers squeaked against the floor as she rushed to look for her. "Gavial, We need you down here!"

"Where is she?" asked Scavenger. Gavial began to descend down the stairs, rushing as fast as she could.

"I-is everybody else alright?" Firewatch yelled out to the void.

"We can't see anything down here! Give us a light!" Siege yelled back. Skadi looked over at Saria and gave a nod before scrambling into the office dor. and shuffling through their belongings. It didn't instantly set in immediately, but Skadi felt the wave of shock for Grani finally set in. Although they didn't talk a whole lot on this mission, it didn't change all the time they spent together back in Rhodes island and Kazimierz. All that time was just thrown away in an instant, whether she was dead or close to it.

Her eyes stung and her vision blurred with unreleased tears, but she suppressed herself and kept her focus as she dug through clothes, snacks, and equipment before finding a flashlight. She tried clicking it on, but it wouldn't work like it usually did. She sprinted over to the conference hall and found the white gas lantern. She speedily flicked the switch at the bottom, illuminating the room in a bright flame. Running back onto the walkway, she placed down the lantern at their feet, which barely illuminated the first floor through the glass banisters. It wasn't sufficient, but it was all that they could do.

"A lantern?" whispered Schwarz.

"The electronics are fried, that must have been an EMP," Skadi said. Schwarz quickly checked her blue ankle tracking band and saw that the LEDs went dark. The same glowing bands were out as well for Saria and Skadi.

Their inspection abruptly ended as troops rushed in from the hole made by the van, the glass crushing under their boots signifying that there were many. Through the moonlight, Saria could barely see a lighter bring a full flame to a Molotov, which was thrown into the middle of the lobby. The bottle shattered on the ground; the bright flash of fire illuminated more than a half dozen enemies surrounding the three guards. Schwarz and Firewatch began taking shots at the cocktail thrower, being careful to not shoot at their own. Hoshiguma took the front line as a hateful avenger lunged at her. The katana clanged off of the spinning shield as Siege and Indra stepped into place, taking their own enemies as well. The Molotov smoke began to blind the snipers on the second floor, making the cover fire even riskier. Despite the blinding smoke and grunts of combat, everybody heard heavy footsteps run through the lobby and straight to the stairs.

"Why isn't Scavenger defending the stairs?" Saria asked.

"I hope she's alright," Skadi replied. Saria's eyebrows suddenly dropped slightly. She hadn't even considered that Scavenger could have gotten hurt.

Skadi quickly took her place near the elevator with her shield ready, hidden from the doorway's view. Saria stood in the small gap in the hallway between the elevator and the parallel wall, leaving some space for Skadi to attack. An attacker kicked down the staircase door, making a loud slam noise that alerted the snipers.

"Don't stop covering the lobby, no matter what!" Saria shouted, making the snipers turn away again. Saria flinched as she turned around to see a crossbow bolt going straight for her, but it ricocheted off the right side of her shield. Faust quickly loaded another bolt and backed up behind the stairway door as Broca ran through, his saw blade spinning and ready for combat. No words were said as Broca instantly sprinted forward and lunged at the shield. Saria slammed her shield forward, redirecting the saw to the side and making Broca lose his momentum.

She swung her shield again but was blocked by Broca. He swung his sawblade sideways while Saria jumped back, leaving space for Skadi to rush down the hall and attack Faust. She dragged her sword across the ground and sprinted around the corner, flinging her sword upwards and colliding with his crossbow. With a loud clang sound, the crossbow flung out of Faust's hands and tumbled to the ground behind them, protecting both of them from getting shot any more.

Saria continued to back up and block Broca, being wary of the friendly snipers behind her. She believed that she could win this fight, and didn't want to distract them from their cover fire. She wanted to get this fight over with as soon as possible, so she could help Skadi.

While Saria was fighting Broca, Skadi continued to fight Faust. She swung her sword upwards, slashing a part of Faust's thigh and making him shout in pain. Skadi tried to swing downwards again, but her sword got caught in one of the ceiling lights. Faust used the opportunity to punch Skadi in the stomach, and back up to grab his crossbow again. Skadi was winded by the blow, but she stumbled towards him and yanked the bottom of his coat, sending him back.

She went for a punch, but it was smacked out of the way, making Faust sidestep to her right. He went for her right hand and ripped off the gauze, causing her missing finger scab to open again, making blood drip down. Skadi flicked her hand in his direction, making him flinch and getting blood in his eye. Skadi then charged at him, shoving her shoulders to his chest and charging towards the wall. He struggled to hit her with some kidney punches but they didn't have much effect on her. She slammed him back against the wall and clocked his jaw with her right hand, sending more blood flying, this time mixed with Faust's. She held his shoulder against the wall and pummeled the middle of his face until his nose started bleeding. Faust spits some blood into Skadi's face, stunning her long enough for him to kick Skadi's knee and make her fall. He quickly picked up his crossbow and fled out of the staircase door. Skadi was about to follow, but realized how exhausted the fight made her. She shakily stood up and grabbed her sword, ready to defend against anything else that came up.

While that Skirmish was going on, Broca and Saria continued their fight. Broca shoved the blade into Saria's shield once more, but this time, the teeth caught on to the clear material and violently threw the shield to the side, hurting Saria's arm. Broca used this chance to swing at Saria, landing his fist on the right side of her face and making her recoil. He tried a side kick to follow up, but was blocked by Saria, who grabbed his leg and tried to throw him to the side. He stumbled and dropped his lance, but wasted no time in running up and trying to stomp her injured foot again, like the night he left.

Saria pushed her foot back to dodge and swung it forward at full speed, kicking Broca in the groin. As he lost his fight momentum, Saria charged at him, putting her forearm to his neck, and shoving him into one the glass banisters on the edge of the balcony. It began to crack as Saria put heavy pressure down on Broca's throat. Desperate for an escape, Broca tried to claw Saria's eyes. Saria swatted his hands away and grabbed his neck with both hands before swinging her head forward and headbutting him with her dragon horns. This blow made the glass banister behind Broca's back shatter, sending the two falling down into the lobby.

They crashed into the ground, Broca taking most of the damage as Saria landed on top of him. One of Broca's ankles was bent at a weird angle, and he shouted in pain on the ground. The defenders on the main floor were still busy in the lobby, and were difficult to see as the Molotov smoke billowed around them, the fire spreading through the failed defense supplies. Saria, not focusing on Broca for the moment, was distracted by a heavy stinging sensation on the left side of her face, distinguishable from the numbness of Broca's punches on the other side. She placed her hand to her cheek, and pulled it away to see her hand covered in her own blood.

"Fall back! Pull in and fall back!" a voice called out from behind the smoke, not a voice that Saria recognized. As she tried to look through and see who said it, Broca suddenly swung at her, sending her from sitting to her laying on her back. Saria got up and tried throwing a punch, only to have it blocked by Broca. He struck the left side of her face, amplifying the cut's pain. Broca got another punch in, stinging Saria's face more and stunning her for long enough to get a hold of her neck. He quickly tightened his grip, making Saria desperately try to make him let go, to no avail. His knees pinned her arms down against the ground, so she couldn't claw his face either. She was trapped.

Suddenly, the staircase door swung open, and an indistinguishable figure ran out. They began to sprint towards Saria and Broca at full speed.

"HAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Exusiai screamed as she dove at Broca, shoving him off the top of Saria and beginning their own fight. Exusiai struggled to stay on top, but was getting the advantage by digging her hands into Broca's eyes. Exusiai's SMG was on the ground near where she began her dive, and Saria crawled over to pick it up.

She stood up and rushed over to the Exusiai and Broca. Saria got very close to Broca, and while being careful, lined up the gun barrel to Broca's shin and fired. Broca screamed in agony, finally stopping his struggle. Exusiai breathed heavily as she stumbled to stand. She held out her hand, gesturing to get her gun back. Saria could see Exusiai's one good eye was filled with rage, the other still covered by a stained bandage and some of her hair. Saria passed the gun over and Exusiai immediately aimed it at Broca's head.

"I- wait, I give up, okay? Fuck, I give up!" Broca muttered, raising his hands into the air. He saw the way Exusiai was looking at him and continued: "Listen, If you kill me, ther-"

Exusiai squeezed the trigger without any more hesitation, sending a flurry of bullets into his face, and making him slump over dead almost instantly. Exusiai was breathing heavily as she unloaded the empty magazine and loaded another one, beginning to shoot more bullets into him. Saria quickly got up and held her shoulders, a silent sign to tell her to calm down. She still loudly panted for breath as she snapped herself away from the situation and briskly walked away, leaving Broca in an even bloodier mess than he left her in.

"Saria, are you okay?" asked a voice through the smoke. Saria looked through the smoke to see a towering operator with a horn atop her head. It was obviously Hoshiguma.

"I'm fine," Saria called out. "Have you seen Skadi?"

"I don't know, I can't see anything through this smoke. I'm rounding up whoever I can find."

"I'm going to look for her."

"Okay, I need you to get out of the smoke at least, the fire's spreading around the building. Most of the assailants are gone." Hoshiguma said. Saria walked into view for her. "Damn, are you sure you're alright? Your face is bleeding a lot."

"I know," Saria said, pressing her hand to the long cut across her cheek. "It was just some glass."

"Okay. I'll tell Kal'tsit to patch it up," she said, looking around for her. She instead found the crimson heard sniper. "Exusiai?" Hoshiguma asked, and quickly left Saria to go chase her.

Saria's anxiety about Skadi quickly set in. Fuck , she knew that she should have called in the snipers to help her. She couldn't help support Skadi after she fell from the balcony. Although she didn't doubt Skadi's skills, it still made her nervous about how easy Faust injured her a few days earlier.

"Saria!" Skadi yelled out, running towards her from the end of the lobby. Saria noticed and began to limp towards her as well. Skadi stopped herself as they stood closely, both of them trying to think of what they could say to each other.

"I- uh." Saria stumbled in her speech. Her bottom lip was quivering and she looked to the side, her neck flushing with red. She quickly stepped closer and embraced Skadi in her arms without warning. Skadi immediately hugged her back, dropping her head into her shoulder. She could feel the heat from Saria's neck on her face. "I thought I lost you..." Saria whispered, wrapping her arms tighter around Skadi and closing her eyes, forgetting about the battle-torn environment around them. Neither of them moved for the moment, only embracing each other in a liberating silence. Skadi opened her eyes and glanced at the EMP van, and the trail leading away from it. She was hoping that she wouldn't see Grani laying dead, but there she was.

Skadi tried her hardest to not cry as she felt the tension in her jaw, but quickly failed. She started to quietly sob into Saria's shoulder. Saria gently rubbed her back in a gesture of comfort. She needed a second to truly realize what just happened. Saria was really the only person that she trusted enough to see her so vulnerable.

"Are you guys alright?" Firewatch asked, up to them.

Skadi instantly stopped the hug and was the first to break the grip, but Saria held on for a fraction of a second afterward before forcing herself to separate. Saria struggled to quickly make her usual serious face. "Yeah… yeah. We're alright." Saria stated, noticing that Skadi was facing away in embarrassment.

"We gotta hit the road, the fire is spreading to the second floor," Firewatch stated, walking towards the exit, followed by the other two. She stopped near the damaged EMP van.

"What about Gavial and Angelina? Are they still up on the third floor?"

Firewatch stayed silent for a few seconds and looked sheepishly towards the ground. "Reunion caught both of them." Saria and Skadi both shared a shaky exhale at the new information. Firewatch held out the cheap dolphin necklace that Angelina had. "I found this on the staircase. I don't know if you still want this, but…"

Skadi held out her hand and gently took the pendant, hanging it off the undamaged tail of her tailcoat. She and Firewatch shared a solemn look before Saria spoke.

"Did Reunion catch anybody else?"

"They, uh, they got Scavenger and Indra too. Ambushed them by the stairs."

"Where is everybody else?"

"They're outside, trying out the abandoned Reunion cars to see if any of them will start," Firewatch said, opening the driver's door of the EMP van. She dragged out the deceased driver onto the floor and pushed the ignition key forward, making the car sputter to life despite the crushed bull bars and windshield.

Firewatch leaned on the door and looked over at the other two taking one last glance together at the tarnished base. She caught Skadi staring at Grani's corpse, looking near the reception desk where the raging Molotov flames started to envelop the wall behind.

"They're going to pay for this," Firewatch stated to them, a fierce rage reflecting in her eyes. "I'll make sure that they do."


	14. Chapter 14 (Ameliorate)

"Okay fine, fine! We're fucking stopping!" Firewatch shouted, slamming on the brakes

and making everybody in the van jostle forward. She quickly shut off the engine, enveloping the car interior in the cold moonlight. Kal'tsit and W stopped their motorcycle right next to them.

"We need to stop at a hospital, or a doctor's office, somewhere else but here! Why are we stopping here?" asked Kal'tsit, looking around at a small beachside marketplace they found themselves stopped at.

"Ask them!" Firewatch said, gesturing her head towards the backseat passengers.

Schwarz slid open the van door and spoke. "Siege's cut is bleeding again, she needs help, or she's gonna bleed out!"

"Saria and Exusiai need some help, too," Hoshiguma called out.

"I told you we should find a hospital, or a vet's office, or anywhere but here."

"We may not have that kind of time, Kal'tsit!" Schwarz yelled.

Kal'tsit looked down for a second on contemplation, shook her head, and got off of the bike. "Fine. I need everybody to get out of the way." she dug through the bike's saddlebags for any supplies she had, while the team quickly filed out of the van doors.

"Yo, Firewatch, are you feeling alright?" Exusiai asked, walking up on the driver's side of the van.

Firewatch didn't look at her and stayed silent for a beat before answering "Just… Help Kal'tsit."

Exusiai walked back around to see Schwarz, who gently picked up unconscious Siege, laid her down, and turned on the interior lights of the van. "Skadi, you know how to use steri strips?" Kal'tsit asked, hearing her walk from behind.

"Yes," Skadi responded, walking closer to her.

"I need you to patch up Saria while I'm taking care of Schwarz." she said, passing a small handful of supplies into Skadi's palm. "And tell Gavial to check Exusiai's injuries while we're stopped."

"...Gavial Isn't with us."

Kal'tsit paused in her search through the limited medical supply and glanced slightly to the side in contemplation. "Then go help Saria. Get moving."

Skadi ignored the lack of recognition for Gavial and walked back to the van. Saria was looking at her reflection in one of the tinted glass side windows, lightly touching the still bleeding cut across her left cheek. Skadi shimmied past the rest of the group silently huddled outside of the parked van.

"Hey Saria," Skadi said, walking up behind her and making eye contact through the reflection in the black glass. Saria stared for a second before taking a long blink. She suddenly snapped to attention.

"Oh, hey Skadi. Sorry." Saria said, rubbing her eyes.

"Are you tired?"

"No, no it's nothing," she said, followed by a few seconds of silence. She took another slow blink. "What, uh, what did you want?"

"I need to patch up your cut." Saria gave her a blank stare for a few more seconds. "Come on, there's a bench over here." Skadi said, grabbing her wrist and gently leading her over. It was a small pale blue bench looking outwards at the messy beach and starry horizon behind it. Skadi gently sat Saria down into the bench and stood up in front of her, grabbing a small antiseptic wipe. She leaned down and held the wipe up to the cut. The closeness of the two made Saria's heartbeat grow a little faster.

"Are you ready?" Skadi asked, looking into Saria's eyes. Saria looked back and nodded ever so slightly. Skadi pushed the wipe forward, which made Saria flinch and grunt, the pain catching her off guard and warding off her sleeplessness temporarily. Skadi backed up, looking at Saria again for permission to continue.

"Get it over with."

Skadi nodded, leaned in close once more, and gently placed her other hand at the side of Saria's head. This caught Saria off guard and made her heart rate kick up a little more, but her face barely showed the shock. Skadi pressed the antiseptic into the cut once more, being much more gentle than before, but still making Saria whimper, quiet enough where only Skadi could hear her.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, it doesn't really hurt that much."

"No, I mean emotionally."

"Oh, well…" Saria paused and quickly scratched her neck. "I- I've just been really stressed. I was thinking about the start of everything during the car ride here."

"Do you mean when we first got here?"

"Yeah… I was thinking about how different everything turned out. We were just unpacking Rhodes island equipment, like, half a month ago. Everything was so quiet until these past few days."

"Yeah… I regret all of my stubbornness early on. I wouldn't have tried to do any of the early missions alone if I knew things were going to end up like this."

"It was supposed to be an easy mission… It was my first big operation that I was in charge of," Saria sighed, looking back into Skadi's eyes. "...but now we're sitting on a beach in the middle of nowhere, all of our electronics broken, three of us dead, and no way to get all the way back home. Jessica, Grani, Broca are gone, and now four more are missing, and for what? I couldn't do anything to stop it." Saria's lip started to quiver a little as she spoke, and her neck started turning red again. Skadi could barely see tears pool at the bottom of Saria's eyes.

"It's alright, Saria. Come here." Skadi said, leaning down and initiating a hug. Saria sucked in a breath of air and took her turn quietly crying. Skadi gently rubbed her back, the same way that Saria did in the museum, knowing the comfort of the tiny gesture. "There's a lot that is out of our control… you can't keep blaming yourself…"

"I know, I just… I don't know" Saria mumbled, loosening her grip. Skadi gently let go and stood up again.

"The best thing you can do for the team right now is to try and stay strong for them."

"I know… It just gets hard trying to save face all of the time. Everybody looks up at you all the time until you feel like you can't fall down again. It makes it harder when you do"

"I know you act like that around the rest of the squad, but don't feel like you have to act that way around me, Saria," Skadi paused, "I know how hard it is to keep a façade for so long. Your feelings are safe with me."

Saria smiled at her, comforted by her words. Skadi got out the steri-strips and gently held the left side of her face to place the thin bandages one by one.

"All done," Skadi said, dragging her finger across the last strip. She softly brushed away a loose strand of hair behind Saria's ear and backed up. The two shared a mutual gaze for a few seconds. Skadi walked around and leaned herself down next to her on the bench, glancing out at the horizon. A few moments of comfortable silence fell upon them; not in any sense of awkwardness, just the two relaxing and not having anything that needed to be said. The distant sound of the ocean's waves and the quiet movement of the rest of the group filled the air from far away.

"Skadi?"

Skadi turned towards Saria and made eye contact. "Yes?"

"Do you want to sit closer to the water?"

After a small pause, she gave a small smile and nodded. "Sure!" They sat up and started trudging through the sand, walking closer to the tide. They found a nice little spot, where the waves lapped nearby and the sand was nice and clean. They both sat down near each other, shoulders almost touching.

"Hear that?" Skadi asked, looking up.

"Hm? What?"

"The cicada noises… We can hear them again."

"Oh, yeah. Brings me back," Saria said. She paused for a beat, then suddenly asked: "Wait, you remembered me talking about that?"

"Yeah… you told me that a day or two days ago."

"God, it does not feel like it's been that long. Felt like a lifetime ago," Saria laid down on her back in the sand looking up into the stars. "Maybe i'm just too tired to remember."

Skadi laid down next to her as well and took a deep breath out. "It's alright… We've been through hell these past few days."

"Wait, I do remember… You wanted to see the night sky by the water, so you wouldn't be looking at all the skyscrapers."

"Yeah, this is what I wanted."

"You were right. This is really beautiful." Saria said, taking a deep breath in and a long exhale out. Both of them stargazed in silence, enjoying the sound of ocean waves and cicada chirps drowning out all the other noise. They stayed like this for a pretty long time, comfortable in each other's silence as the time ticked away. All of this made Skadi feel especially homesick, and she burrowed her fingers down into the sand, appreciating the familiar texture.

"Hey... Saria?" She whispered, still staring upwards. After being met with silence, Skadi glanced to her side to see Saria sleeping with the back of her head against the sand, gently breathing through her mouth. Skadi gently tapped her shoulder to check if she was awake. Saria made a sudden inhale and lurched up a little, supporting herself up with her left elbow, still with her eyes closed.

She let herself back down sideways with a small groan, slowly nestling her head against Skadi's shoulder and gently placing her right arm across Skadi's stomach. Skadi's breath was lost, if only for a moment, and her face flushed red. She glanced over at the vehicles to check if anybody saw, and saw nobody. She was embarrassed, but she would be lying to herself if she said that this isn't what she's subconsciously wanted. She gently wrapped her arm around Saria's shoulder, holding it with a temperate grip.

A sense of both love and dread set in. Skadi could feel it in the bottom of her gut, knowing that she was quickly losing her promise to herself to not become attached to anybody ever again. Everybody she had gotten close to, everybody that she cared about, had met an untimely end. It would almost be a greater act of love to cut out any involvement with Saria for her safety, but Skadi just couldn't. Something stronger manifested within herself. In the past, she'd always tried to avoid including the ones she's loved in her hunting, but it felt different for Saria. Not a desire to keep away and sheltered, but an aspiration to fight alongside her and keep her safe. Keeping her separate wouldn't feel right at all.

She wished that she could express these feelings as easily as she could imagine them, but she knew it wasn't like that. Besides, she hoped that Saria realized their connection. A calming aura that she hadn't felt in a long time took over her once more, once she paid attention to what was happening in the moment; The two were laying on the beach, cuddling under the stars, watching the sun begin to rise. Skadi could feel Saria's chest gently rising and falling as she quietly breathed, cozy and safe within her embrace. Skadi desired this feeling much more than she would ever admit.


	15. Chapter 15 (Imperilment)

Gavial, Scavenger, Indra, and Angelina all sat in darkness, backs against cold metal panels and hands bound together with zip ties. The four swayed left and right as the repurposed moving truck swerved around corners and ran over debris. They were all lost in thought about different things; some of them thinking about their own lives, about Grani, they may have been thinking about life back home, or how they even got into this mess. None of them spoke about it to each other. They were trapped in a debilitating silence, as they were all still trying to process everything . Indra broke that silence.

"Alright, we gotta fucking do something. Does anybody have anything that can cut these cuffs off? Anything?"

"What is that going to do? We're still gonna be stuck, and it's not like we have our weapons anymore," responded Scavenger.

"I don't know, but we gotta do something . We can't just sit around and wait for them to hurt us even more..."

"Faust will probably be on the other side of that door with a dozen other people, you really wanna try something against that?"

"We have to try! Once they lock us in a cage like a bunch of fuckin' dogs, it's over!"

"Then tough shit, Indra! Trying to attack them could be the difference between making it through this or dying." Gavial shouted, in a weirdly cold tone for her.

"But, Gavial-"

"No buts! Were going to wait, were going to find out what their intentions are, and then we're going to plan our next moves. Am I clear?"

"Fine," Indra stated. Gavial exhaled and dropped her back against the cold metal walls of the truck, staring at nothing, lost in thought. Indra was angrily silent for the rest of the short ride as well. The four idly swayed as the van came to a stop and began reversing. The van rolled to a stop once more as Indra clenched her fists and Angelina took in a shaky breath.

"Rise and shine!" Frostnova pronounced, aggressively pulling up on the back shutter door. A bright spotlight shone behind her, making only her illumination visible to the operators. "Everybody out, now."

The four operators stood in a line and filed out of the truck. They were temporarily blinded by the bright fluorescent lights in comparison to the pitch-black truck bed. As their vision went back to normal, they found themselves in what looked like a mix of a garage and a classroom. Their exploration was stopped as Frostnova slammed four duffel bags into the ground.

"Change." Frostnova coldly stated.

"What?" Scavenger asked. Gavial zipped open the duffel bag, revealing a basic reunion uniform. Frostnova walked up to Scavenger with a large knife, making her flinch. She cut off the bindings from the four of them, knowing that they were unarmed.

"I need you to change your clothes. It's for your safety." The four operators shared quick glances at each other.

"Right here?" asked Angelina.

"Stop wasting my time," Frostnova responded. The operators shared a glance again before Gavial reluctantly took off her combat vest. The others followed, still uncomfortable but without other options. As they changed, Frostnova was examining them to look for any originium crystallization on their skin. It wasn't a graceful way to do it, but she couldn't risk anybody lying about infection. As they continued to change, Frostnova never saw any crystals on Indra, but she didn't announce the discovery.

The operators finished changing and stood ready in front of Frostnova, all in the same black-and-white hooded uniform they'd seen so many times before. The uniforms hung loose on Angelina and Gavial, their small stature made more extreme by the lack of big soled shoes and high heels.

"Hey, what do we do with our clothes?" Indra impatiently said, gesturing to her bomber jacket and jeans on the ground.

"Leave them in the bags. We'll get rid of them."

"Hey! What?" Indra questioned.

"You don't need them anymore."

"Why- Can I just keep my jacket?" Indra said, turning around to the group. "C'mon, you're just gonna let her do this? Gavial?"

"Just calm down for a while, Indra. We're their prisoners, this isn't some stupid slumber party." Gavial responded, much colder than usual.

Angelina wasn't paying much attention to the argument, looking down at her clothes. That was my favorite outfit… Angelina thought to herself. I know it's all torn up from the fight, but I still like it!

"To answer our question, no. You can't keep your jacket."

"I- Wh-" Indra tried to say, but her stumbling was swiftly cut off by Frostnova once more.

"I'll just say this now and hope none of you fuck it up down the line; don't ask any stupid questions, and don't waste my time. Am I clear?" She was met with prompt responses from the operators, except for Indra, who mumbled an mmm-hmm. Frostnova walked closer to Indra and repeated herself. "I don't think you heard me, I said Am I Clear? "

Indra walked closer, almost standing toe to toe with Frostnova. "Don't worry, I heard you."

"Indra…" Scavenger tried intervening. Gavial quickly grabbed Scavenger's shoulder, stopping her from walking.

"Don't get in the middle of that," Gavial whispered. While Frostnova was distracted, Angelina quietly grabbed her clunky sneakers and broken earpiece from the duffel bag and tied it to her back belt loop, concealed by the baggy uniform over her small figure.

Indra and Frostnova locked angry eyes to angry faces, while the rest of the group worriedly stared, unable to do much with their bindings. Frostnova's face turned from one of bitterness to one of amusement, as she gave a little smirk and gave an inaudible laugh.

"I like that look in your eyes… That's how a warrior should look." Frostnova said. "Too bad your potential has been wasted so far."

"Say that again," Indra muttered, clenching her fists.

"Weird, I thought you said that you heard me." Frostnova mocked. Indra's face turned red and her eyebrows angled down. "I know what you're thinking. Go ahead. Swing at me."

Almost immediately, Indra swung her right fist upwards in an attempt to hit her chin, but Frostnova quickly grabbed onto her balled fists at chest level. "What? Hey!"

"Remember who's in charge here," Frostnova said, throwing Indra's hands down and making her lose her balance. "Let's get moving." She led them out of the auto shop doors into a locker-filled hallway. Ivory and navy blue patterns covered the faded tile floors and hard walls, while loud fluorescent lights and scattered office panels filled the ceiling. Some small windows high above the lockers let in a small amount of the dawn's light. The same design pattern felt as it went on forever as the crew's boots clacked down the hallway, echoing off of the emptiness.

"I understand that emotions, well, they may be running a little array. We've lost people over these past few days, and so have you. I don't exactly expect us to be family anytime soon, but we'll work on it."

Faust suddenly walked out of a side door, holding a bloody gauze ball up to his nose.

"Oh, perfect," Frostnova said, pronouncing her voice so Faust could hear her. "Faust, can you bring her to the bathhouse?"

"Wait, are you sure? This early?" he said, his voice slightly mumbled from the injuries he received from Skadi.

"Yes I'm sure, otherwise I wouldn't have said it. Go."

"Bathhouse? The fuck is that supposed to mean?" asked Indra, met with no response. Faust sheepishly nodded his head and grabbed Indra's arm, leading her away. Angelina looked back towards her, and they shared a small last glance at each other before they couldn't see each other anymore.

"Frostnova, where is she being taken to?" asked Angelina.

"Don't you remember what I said earlier? About not asking questions?"

Gavial and Angelina shared a glance of unease at each other. A tense silence fell upon the group as they continued the walk down the navy blue hallway. Noticing the silence, Frostnova continued speaking.

"I seem to have underestimated you all. I wouldn't have stayed behind if I knew you could hold your own against some weak calvary. I know you Rhodes Islanders can fight, but I still can't trust you right away while you're here."

"What are we going to be doing?" Scavenger quietly asked. Frostnova didn't even bother responding. Frostnova turned when a trophy-case filled hallway crossed their path, leading into a set of metal doors.

"You all need to get your masks on, and you better be quiet. It's late."

"O-okay," Angelina said, almost like she was asking a question. The three sheepishly placed their masks over their faces, and Frostnova slowly opened the doors, revealing a large gymnasium, connected to a curtained stage. The light of dawn barely streamed through the windows high up on the sidewalls, barely illuminating the large court. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of reunion members lay asleep on a large set of cots spread across the warped wooden floor. Graffiti covers the walls, some from the old residents of the city, and some from the reunion, all barely legible in the current dark lighting. The center of the basketball court bears the school insignia; a butterfly, surprisingly untouched by the graffiti.

The group very slowly walked through the gym, being extremely cautious to not make any floorboards creak. Angelina took short shallow breaths, having never seen so many Reunion in one place before. She was scared that her disguise wouldn't be enough to protect her.

Frostnova led them all to the stage, holding open the curtain and doing one last glance at the soldiers to make sure nobody was awake. She slid the curtains shut and turned on one of the stage's spotlights, illuminating another set of cots hidden from the main gym floor. One person, donning the same reunion clothes, groaned as she was awakened by the spotlight. Her blonde hair and horns were visible, sticking out past the hood.

"Leizi?" Scavenger asked. The woman looked back at them, an extremely worried look on her face.

"Well Leizi, you finally have some new bunkmates tonight," Frostnova announced. She turned around to the new three "You can take off your masks now. You all better get some sleep, because you're going to be working hard." Frostnova began to walk away down to one of the side doors of the stage. Leizi shook her head and rubbed her eyes, before Frostnova shut off the spotlight again, making the backstage dark enough to where they could barely see each other's faces.

Angelina heard some speaking from that direction as well, so she went to investigate. She walked slowly as the black floorboards slowly creaked as she made her way across. A small reading light above the lighting control panel illuminated Frostnova speaking to a radio. Her voice was quiet, so she had to get really close to hear what she was saying.

"... Them to stop; couldn't get them to the evac point tonight..." Frostnova quickly shut off her radio when she noticed Angelina staring at it. She quickly tried the fact that she was caught off guard

"I hope you know it's rude to listen to others' conversations."

"Sorry, Ma'am."

"Get to bed… I got something to take care of."

Angelina shuffled back to the beds in the darkness, a small sliver of the dawn's light leaking through the middle of the curtains, barely illuminating Leizi. Scavenger and Gavial were also sitting on the nearby cots, but they looked too hollow and exhausted to really have a conversation. Angelina was about ready to get some rest as well, but the look on Leizi's face made her think otherwise. She was sitting on the corner of her bed with her leg wrapped around one of the floor supports, fidgeting with a piece of her uniform and staring at what looked like nothing. Her eyes looked damp as Angelina gently sat herself down on another corner of the bed.

"Hi, Leizi…"

Leizi stayed quiet for a second before bluntly answering. "Were you guys ambushed tonight?"

Angelina took her turn of short-lived silence "Yeah, yeah we were. We just got here."

"Did- If you don't mind me asking, did you lose anybody from Rhodes Island tonight?"

Angelina pressed her hand into the back of her neck, anxiety quickly being placed in her with these sudden questions. "Uh, yeah. We lost Grani tonight. Broca too, but he was fighting for Reunion."

"Yeah, Reunion was trying to capture or bribe operators into joining. I guess it worked with him, I saw him once, maybe twice back here."

"Reunion bought him out?"

"It seemed like it, yes. I guess money can motivate anybody, especially a mob fighter."

"Were they trying to buy anybody else?"

"I've heard chatter that they were trying to get the Penguin Logistics members to join, but I'm guessing they didn't join."

"Broca tried," Angelina told Leizi. "I-I don't really know much, but he messed her up pretty badly when she threatened to tell the others about his deal. That's how we ended up finding this place."

"Is Exusiai okay?"

"She uh… well, She survived. I saw her fighting before I got dragged away into the van." Angelina said, met with a worrying silence. She continued the conversation "I wonder why Kal'tsit left us in the dark about this whole recruitment thing."

"Wait… Kal'tsit was with you? Oh no…"

"What?"

"I've seen her a few times this past couple of days. I don't really get to roam around much, so I don't know what she's been doing."

"We know that she's been here, but she alerted us to the raid before it happened."

Leizi looked to the side. "She's probably known about that attack for days, she didn't try to warn her earlier?" Angelina stayed silent before Leizi continued. "Let me ask you this: When she arrived at first, did she try to form any type of connection with you?"

"No, she brought us to combine with another squad, we were playing cards, but she walked off… I didn't give it much thought when it happened."

"...Was your team trusting of her when she got back?"

"We didn't really have any time to react, it was only a minute or two before the fight."

"Shit… We need to get out of here, before your team grows too trusting of her. I've seen it happen before, with my team."

"You had a team here before us?"

"Y-you guys weren't on a rescue mission?" Leizi asked, leaning back slightly.

"No, the mission never mentioned anybody else being in this city. Nobody at all, actually," said Angelina. Leizi's face turned somber, and she started hugging her knees and rocked slightly. "I'm sorry, Leizi."

"I- How could… Did doctor give you the mission? Did he just forget about my whole team?"

"Kal'tsit gave us a note that we were going… the doctor had been out of the office for a while before we left."

"That's… weird. To say the least. I feel like the Doctor's office is never empty..."

"Me too." Angelina pondered. The two sat in silence for a few moments, contemplating all that they just heard.

Leizi inhaled a deep breath and broke eye contact, looking at the ground instead. "So, my team… There were eight of us stationed not far from here, out in a big shopping mall. It was Ludington something… whatever, it doesn't really matter much. We stayed there for a while before we got discovered by reunion and got attacked shortly after. They captured about half of us the first time, targeting the infected first."

"They were trying to do the same for us."

Leizi nodded and continued. "So, it was the four of us after that. Texas was our leader at the time, I kept telling her that we had to stage a rescue, but she wasn't having it at all. Kept saying that we should just leave and have somebody else taking care of it. I just couldn't do that. I eventually got her to budge and we tried sneaking in, but the three of us got caught, and Texas disappeared. I thought you guys were the rescue crew she wanted... but I guess not."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Leizi."

"Thank you…." Leizi paused. "When we got here, things got really bad. Matterhorn was with us, but by the time I was here, he bled out from an injury from the raid. Over the past month or two, our numbers dwindled further, only three of us are left here now. They kept trying to infect the uninfected for their 'perfect little community.' Some handled it well. Some didn't."

"They're trying to infect people?" Angelina asked, looking back towards the door.

"Was there another person with you?"

"Yeah, Indra was with us when we got here. She was lashing out and Frostnova told Faust to bring her to 'the bathhouse.'" Angelina said. Leizi quietly sighed and looked towards the door. "What? What's wrong?"

"Sorry to say, but I think they are infecting your friend as we speak... this will be a long night for her."

"Wh- what are they doing specifically?"

"It's… it's really scary. Please be gentle with her when you see her again." Leizi rolled down her sleeves and scratched her neck. Angelina was about to speak again before Leizi quickly interrupted. "It's getting really late. We can just talk about this more tomorrow. Try to get some sleep if you can."

"O-okay. Goodnight." Angelina responded, confused by the sudden change in attitude.

"Mmhm."

Angelina laid down in bed, but the clunky sneakers on her back made the position uncomfortable. As much as she wanted to wear them, she tossed them into the footlocker under her bed, hopeful that they wouldn't get taken away. She laid in bed, exhausted from the night, but anxiety stinging her mind awake before she could even try to close her eyes.


End file.
